"Breeding-back" aims to restore or immitate extinct animals by selective breeding. This blog provides general information, the facts behind myths and news from various projects.
Friday 1 December 2023
European and Indian aurochs may have vocalized differently
Recently I learned on a Facebook group that taurine and indicine cattle vocalize differently. Previously, I had assumed that all cattle vocalize in the same way, and that that way is typical for the entire species of Bos primigenius. It turns out that there are differences between the vocalization of taurine and indicine cattle, and I suspect those differences could be inherited from their wild ancestors.
Taurine bulls often make repetitive, trumpeting calls:
Zebu bulls, on the other hand, omit growling grunts, resembling the roar of a jaguar:
I find this fascinating. I consider it quite likely that both calls are inherited from the European and Indian aurochs respectively, although we cannot rule out that mutations affecting behaviour during domestication created this difference in vocalization.
Perhaps it would be helpful if more research is done with observing taurine cattle in rewilded settings. According to Stichting Taurus (Taurus Foundation in the Netherlands) their taurus cattle have a repertoire of sounds that they use for different situations/types of communication they want to put out there. Their free roaming Taurus cattle seem to make pretty much the same sounds as the Zebus in the videos and have been recorded making similar growls in National Park "de Maashorst": http://www.instagram.com/tv/CXi_8eelyxt/ If the link doesn't work go to the stichting_taurus IG page and scroll down to the post of 16 december 2021. The post also says that cattle tend to use lower growls for communication at longer distances because lower frequency sounds travel further. They also say that cows calves and bulls use different calls. So perhaps in some breeds bulls or within a breed depending on genetics some have higher pitched calls due to paedomorphy or reduced sexual dimorphic differences. It could very well be that as more Aurochs type cattle are released into larger wild life areas they start reconnecting to this type of communication or those genes will come to expression again. Domesticated cattle in Europe simply had little need for long distance communication being in barns and small paddocks. In India with cattle being outdoors and with free roaming being possible those long distance communication calls were never interrupted.
Growling is a vocalization different from the trumpeting calls of the bulls, all cattle bulls growl as far as I know. It seems that the sounds that the zebu bulls in the videos make are a homologue to the trumpeting calls of taurine cattle, albeit phenotypically different.
The video showing that Zebu bulls sound like big cats is amazing! https://youtu.be/ReFfQtTTV20
European cave paintings show that once upon a time aurochs and lions lived together in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe
Descendants of European aurochs, the Chillingham breed, have bulls with a calls unlike any of the vocalisations of races of Bos taurus described in the literature. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4534659
Zebus share alleles with the European aurochs. https://breedingback.blogspot.com/2023/12/why-i-think-purity-makes-no-sense-in.html?m=1
The lions did not become extinct in India (but in modern times they are only found in one reserve).
What function does the Zebu bull's roaring like a lion have? Is it the same function that may have existed in European aurochs?
Have you heard the differences between european red deer (Cervus elaphus) versus american elk (C. canadensis)?
ReplyDeleteThe european: https://youtu.be/X_8kdrUiOQo?t=42
the american: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gBk04ajuxk
Perhaps it would be helpful if more research is done with observing taurine cattle in rewilded settings.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Stichting Taurus (Taurus Foundation in the Netherlands) their taurus cattle have a repertoire of sounds that they use for different situations/types of communication they want to put out there.
Their free roaming Taurus cattle seem to make pretty much the same sounds as the Zebus in the videos and have been recorded making similar growls in National Park "de Maashorst": http://www.instagram.com/tv/CXi_8eelyxt/
If the link doesn't work go to the stichting_taurus IG page and scroll down to the post of 16 december 2021.
The post also says that cattle tend to use lower growls for communication at longer distances because lower frequency sounds travel further. They also say that cows calves and bulls use different calls.
So perhaps in some breeds bulls or within a breed depending on genetics some have higher pitched calls due to paedomorphy or reduced sexual dimorphic differences.
It could very well be that as more Aurochs type cattle are released into larger wild life areas they start reconnecting to this type of communication or those genes will come to expression again. Domesticated cattle in Europe simply had little need for long distance communication being in barns and small paddocks. In India with cattle being outdoors and with free roaming being possible those long distance communication calls were never interrupted.
Growling is a vocalization different from the trumpeting calls of the bulls, all cattle bulls growl as far as I know. It seems that the sounds that the zebu bulls in the videos make are a homologue to the trumpeting calls of taurine cattle, albeit phenotypically different.
Deletehttps://www.jstor.org/stable/4534659
ReplyDeleteThe video showing that Zebu bulls sound like big cats is amazing! https://youtu.be/ReFfQtTTV20
ReplyDeleteEuropean cave paintings show that once upon a time aurochs and lions lived together in Europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe
Descendants of European aurochs, the Chillingham breed, have bulls with a calls unlike any of the vocalisations of races of Bos taurus described in the literature. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4534659
Zebus share alleles with the European aurochs.
https://breedingback.blogspot.com/2023/12/why-i-think-purity-makes-no-sense-in.html?m=1
The lions did not become extinct in India (but in modern times they are only found in one reserve).
What function does the Zebu bull's roaring like a lion have?
Is it the same function that may have existed in European aurochs?