• For once, some good news on an extinction: A new kind of cattle comes to take the Auroch's mantle
    19 replies, posted
[img]http://www.eurowildlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/European-Widlife-Aurochs-Backbreeding-Wild-Cattle-Facebook-Taurus_Foundation.jpg[/img] [quote]For hundreds of thousands of years the Aurochs was a part of European nature. Since the death of the last aurochs in 1627 in the Jaktorow game preserve in Poland, it seemed that Europe has lost this key species forever. The history is about to change, though. European Wildlife organization in cooperation with the Dutch Taurus Foundation is preparing a project aiming to return the Aurochs to the mountains of Central Europe... ...The central idea of the Tauros Programme is to find the European bovine breeds with the best ‘primitive’ characteristics and breed them into a new fully self-sufficient cattle breed. It will not be an exact copy of the aurochs, but will be very close. Therefore we call the animal the Tauros. The breeding should be done on a large scale because large numbers are needed,” said Ronald Goderie a board member of the Taurus Foundation. The Aurochs is the animal to choose as our reference, because after about 400.000 years of evolution, the Aurochs had turned into an animal perfected for the European situation. The Foundation examined about 30 primitive bovine breeds and works with about 6 European breeds, each with at least some of the right characteristics. In each area they prefer to start with a suitable local primitive cattle breed if available and if proven to have enough primitive characteristics. The project started in 2008 and is divided into four phases. In the concluding phase, after about 2025, the expected results will have all the right characteristics of the aurochs – the colour, size, behaviour and the way of grazing. These animals will by then have been recognized as wild living creatures and released into the wild. But the early results from the Taurus Foundation...[/quote] [url]http://www.eurowildlife.org/news/the-aurochs-is-about-to-return-to-the-mountains-of-central-europe/[/url]
They only went extinct in the 1600s? I'm surprised we aren't trying to clone them back into existence, or at least clone a few and cross-breed with existing cattle to get a stable population back.
[QUOTE=gman003-main;41956879]They only went extinct in the 1600s? I'm surprised we aren't trying to clone them back into existence, or at least clone a few and cross-breed with existing cattle to get a stable population back.[/QUOTE] You need intact DNA, 400 years is more than long enough for that stuff to degrade beyond the point of usability.
Fun fact: The Nazis wanted to do this too! Infact, some of what was left over of their efforts is probably in the footprint of this program!
I can't wait to eat them back into extinction
The big question is: How tasty will they be?
Bring back the orcs to the mountains of the old country
A scientific illustration of the extinct Aurochs, along with their greatest natural predator, a Gaul. [t]http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1132.0;attach=420;image[/t]
So...um. Why are they bringing back an extinct species of Cow from the 1600's?
Nature finds a way.
[QUOTE=HkSniper;41959054]Nature finds a way.[/QUOTE] Yeah, it lets other parts of nature bring that part of nature back to life.
Weren't they gigantic though? Like way bigger than modern cows? [IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Long_horned_european_wild_ox.jpg[/IMG] EDIT: Holy cow [IMG_thumb]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/A_reconstruction_of_the_aurochs_hunting_scene_in_the_mural..jpg[/IMG_thumb]
[QUOTE=kr1f333;41959138]Weren't they gigantic though? Like way bigger than modern cows? [/QUOTE] If your basing that thought on medieval images, like most do, I'd guess again as most medieval pictures of animals were inflated to show off a 'bountiful harvest' and so forth.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;41959046]its in the op[/QUOTE] And yet I still don't know why they're bringing an extinct species of cow. Do they not have cows in Europe, or do they just want lower maintenance cows?
[QUOTE=Del91;41982056]And yet I still don't know why they're bringing an extinct species of cow. Do they not have cows in Europe, or do they just want lower maintenance cows?[/QUOTE] Because it is European heritage that has been lost and maybe we'd like to right our wrongdoing in making this species extinct?
[QUOTE=Del91;41982056]And yet I still don't know why they're bringing an extinct species of cow. Do they not have cows in Europe, or do they just want lower maintenance cows?[/QUOTE] Because it would do good things for the local ecology.
They're calling it a tauros? i see a future full of pokemon
Science bitch!
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