Nazis idolised the
auroch and ecologists believe its extinction has impacted Europe's ecology
Tuesday 10 January 2017
Scientists say they are well on
the way to resurrecting an ancient species of super-cow revered by the Nazis
after it went extinct nearly 400 years ago.
The auroch roamed the grassy
plains of Europe for 250,000 years until it died out in Poland in 1627, and
Adolf Hitler's followers tried to breed a similar beast as part of their Aryan
mythology.
Now conservationists who believe
the bovine ancestor was key to preserving the continent's ecosystem have said
they are 'rewilding' the fourth generation of their experimental auroch
replacement as part of the Tauros Project.
Founder and ecologist Ronald
Goderie told CNN: "We thought we needed a grazer that is
fully self-sufficient in case of big predators...and could do the job of
grazing big wild areas. We reasoned that this animal would have to resemble an
auroch.
"We see progress not only in
looks and behavior but also in de-domestication of the animals."
In conjunction with the Rewilding
Europe group, the Tauros, bred from a number of current species with auroch
ancestry, have been released into areas of Spain, Portugal, Croatia, the Czech
Republic and Romania, where they have had to contend with wolves and other
predators.
Mr Goderie believes that by 2025,
the seventh generation of neo-aurochs will be as close as possible to the
originals.
In 2015 a British farmer was forced to
kill off half his herd of auroch-derived Heck cattle because
they kept trying to kill him.
The aggressive breed was produced
by German zoologists and brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck, whom the Nazi party
commissioned to produce a breed of cattle based on the aurochs, a taller and
leaner animal than today's cows.
Derek Gow said: "What the
Germans did with their breeding programme was create something truly primeval.
"When the Germans were
selecting them to create this animal they used Spanish fighting cattle to give
them the shape and ferocity they wanted."
He turned the rogue
cows into “very tasty” sausages that tasted a bit like venison, he said.
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