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SCIENCEWednesday 14 October

Wild aurochs-like cattle reintroduced in Czech

Republic A Tauros, a cattle that thanks to a Dutch breeding program is close to the ancient Aurochs, that once were the heaviest European
KAREL JANICEK land mammals, walks inside an enclosure at the former military base in Milovice, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015.
Associated Press
MILOVICE, Czech Republic Associated Press
(AP) — Such an animal has
not been seen on Czech “While the wild horses pre- Limia from Spain, Marem- first country in Central and pictures appeared in a
territory for hundreds of fer grasses, the aurochs mana from Italy and High- Eastern Europe to receive cave painting in France’s
years. like the bushes. They don’t lander from Scotland. the animals from the Neth- Lascaux and entered the
A Dutch breeding program compete. Their combina- Through cross-breeding, erlands, with Romania to Greek mythology about
has recreated massive bo- tion forms a natural part- they have been working on follow. There are already founding Europe as Zeus
vines closely related to au- nership such as it was in the reconstructing the original herds in Portugal, Spain kidnapped and seduced
rochs, once the heaviest wild nature for thousands aurochs with the goal to and Croatia. Europa in the form of an
European land mammal years.” have “the presence of the An aurochs bull could be aurochs.
and the wild ancestor of The Dutch Taurus Founda- Tauros as a self-sufficient about 180 centimeters Frans Jacobs, Dutch cattle
today’s cattle that be- tion joined forces with the wild bovine grazer in herds (nearly six feet) tall, weigh a rancher who raised the
came extinct in the 17th University of Wageningen of at least 150 animals each metric ton and have long, animals and transported
century. and some other groups in several rewilding areas in thick horns. The adult bulls them to the Czech Repub-
It is believed they disap- in the Tauros program, as Europe,” Rewilding Europe, turn from chestnut color to lic, said he believed they
peared from what is now the new animal is called, in another organization in- almost black with a typi- will avoid the fate of the
the Czech Republic in the 2008. volved, said on its Web site. cal white stripe along the aurochs, whose last indi-
12th or 13th century. With knowledge of the au- “In a few generations, we spine; the cows are smaller vidual is said to have died
On Tuesday, a small herd rochs’ DNA, the scientists should be able to get an and reddish-brown. in 1627 in Poland.
was introduced to a Czech analyzed some existing animal that looks like the Aurochs roamed most of “They are supposed to be
sanctuary as part of a primitive cattle breeds that aurochs and also has the the European continent very strong cattle they eat
project to use big-hoofed are similar to their extinct same impact on the envi- as well in Northern Africa whatever they can get,”
animals to maintain the ancestors. They included ronment,” Dostal said. and Asia for several hun- Jacobs said. “They will sur-
steppe character of the Pajuna, Sayaguesa and The Czech Republic is the dred thousand years. Their vive. They will survive us.”q
former Milovice military
base, 35 kilometers (22
miles) northeast of Prague.
The beasts joined a herd
of 15 wild horses from Brit-
ain’s Exmoor National Park
that were moved here in
January with a task to stop
the spread of aggressive
and evasive grasses and
bushes, delicacies to the
animals.
The invasive plants began
to grow after Soviet troops
withdrew from the base
in 1991, threatening the
area’s original plants and
animals.
After a nine-hour drive and
few more minutes of hesi-
tation, five cows and a bull
— all calves— jumped out
of a truck at dawn to take
the first look at their new
home.
“They complement each
other,” said Dalibor Dos-
tal, director of European
Wildlife, the organization
behind the project. He ex-
pects no conflicts between
horses and cattle sharing
the 40-hectare (99-acre)
area.