page_title: Aurochs
section_title: Breeding of aurochs-like cattle
hierarchical_section_title: Aurochs / Breeding of aurochs-like cattle
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Hausrinder der Rasse Heckrind im Lainzer Tiergarten.
context_page_description: The aurochs, also known as urus or ure, is an extinct species of large wild cattle that inhabited Asia, Europe, and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The species survived in Europe until 1627, when the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland.
  During the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred during the early Holocene, at least two aurochs domestication events occurred: one related to the Indian subspecies, leading to zebu cattle, and the other related to the Eurasian subspecies, leading to taurine cattle. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated, namely the wild water buffalo, gaur, wild yak and banteng. In modern cattle, many breeds share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a dark colour in the bulls with a light eel stripe along the back, or a typical aurochs-like horn shape.
context_section_description: While all the wild subspecies are extinct, B. primigenius lives on in domesticated cattle, and attempts are being made to breed similar types suitable for filling the extinct subspecies' role in the former ecosystem.
  The idea of breeding back the aurochs was first proposed in the 19th century by Feliks Paweł Jarocki. In the 1920s, a first attempt was undertaken by the Heck brothers in Germany with the aim of breeding an effigy (a look-alike) of the aurochs. Starting in the 1990s grazing and rewilding projects brought new impetus to the idea and new breeding-back efforts came underway, this time with the aim of recreating an animal not only with the looks, but also with the behaviour and the ecological impact of the aurochs, to be able to fill the ecological role of the aurochs.
  The drive behind reintroduction efforts of the aurochs is largely motivated by a belief that an aesthetically pleasing open park-like landscape is "natural". The former natural European landscapes probably consisted of dense forests, with the aurochs being confined to open areas in marshlands along rivers. Research into the impact of large herbivores on forest growth has concluded that large herbivores are only able to create and maintain an open park-like landscape with the help of man. Grazing behaviour by livestock alters the landscape, which one organisation promotes as "natural grazing" (also called conservation grazing). The Rewilding Europe foundation advocates for "returning" lands to their "natural state" and believes that, without grazing, everything becomes forest. According to one theory, "mosaic landscapes" and gradients between different environments, from open soil to grassland, are important for biodiversity.
  Approaches that aim to breed an aurochs-like phenotype do not equate to an aurochs-like genotype. One study proposed that using the mapped out genomes of prehistoric specimens it will be possible to breed back cattle "that are genetically akin to specific original aurochs populations, through selective cross-breeding of local cattle breeds bearing local aurochs-genome ancestry."
caption: Heck cattle: the first attempt to breed a look-alike from modern cattle from the 1920s
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