News from the True Nature Foundation

The TNF, the foundation that runs the Uruz Project, has posted the news that they received a number of Watussi cows from the Brüggen Zoo and they were moved to Bielefeld, where they will form a new breeding herd together with at least one Chianina bull. For a photo of these Watussi, go here. I was told that they are about 130 cm tall at the withers. That bull is a very young one, a son of one of the Chianina at Kloster Lorsch, and will turn one year old in April.
Claus Kropp kindly provided me with a photo of this bull calf from December 2014: 

It can't be judged how it looks will be like yet, but it seems that it is going to be a long legged and short trunked critter, also when looking at its mother. Considering that his mother is 165 cm tall according to C. Kropp, I am really curious on how large he is going to get. 

I was happy to see that this is his mother, as she is my favorite Chianina at Lorsch. Her build is very good with a decent hump, and her horn curvature is very desirable as well (the right one was accidentely deformed at young age, I was told). If you compare the colour of the mother below and the bull calf above, you might see that the first one has a beige/light brown tint while the latter one has a dark greyish tint, which is a clear sign of sexual dichromatism masked beneath all those dilution factors. The Sayaguesa x Chianina crossbreeds at the Lippeaue show the same. Therefore I am convinced that the chance is high that Chianina have retained sexual dichromatism. This will be helpful to get a good colour out of the Chianina x Watussi combination.