tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post3422037092970564104..comments2024-03-24T17:13:20.179-07:00Comments on The Breeding-back Blog: What's so charming about the aurochs? Daniel Foidlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02924677790606716751noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-78923644725449427202017-03-18T09:43:11.846-07:002017-03-18T09:43:11.846-07:00Hi Daniel,
Although Loxodonta cyclotis is an anima...Hi Daniel,<br />Although Loxodonta cyclotis is an animal of the tropics, we should keep in mind that it also weights several tons. This means it is much more resistant to low temperatures than animals of less mass. Indeed, it is quite difficult for such a large body to loose heat (hence the large ears). Until historic times, Elephas was also distributed in temperate China, not just the trophics. There is even an experiment running with Elephas being kept outside all year round (near Arhus I think) to study the impact of elephants on the european plant community (lead by Jens Svenning).<br />To summerize: elephants are probably well enough suited for (temperate) european winters. The scarcity of food might be another matter, though.<br />Anyway, thanks for your effort in keeping us informed about back breeding!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-92169519701810188102017-03-02T13:49:01.928-08:002017-03-02T13:49:01.928-08:00Thanks for the kind words. I know of no comprehens...Thanks for the kind words. I know of no comprehensive books on this subjects if you want to go deeper into this subject, I primarily use papers as a reference. Daniel Foidlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02924677790606716751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-81959850174715005082017-03-01T10:50:41.641-08:002017-03-01T10:50:41.641-08:00Thank you again Daniël for your philosophic revela...Thank you again Daniël for your philosophic revelations... I share your enthousiasm of the rich world following up on rebreeding aurochs has opened for all of us. Thankfull that you try to document it for all of us to see.<br />All the breeders should finance you to follow up and promote the general aim, and their specific aim, their animals and products.<br />Would you have tips of interests/must-reads regarding interglacial species-ecology?<br />Regards!Frank Holweghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17543872641094319959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-89971168852611003352017-02-24T09:17:05.053-08:002017-02-24T09:17:05.053-08:00Of course aurochs is also mythologically extremely...Of course aurochs is also mythologically extremely important animal, both in Near East and Europe. And was Europa not seduced by Zeus in form of an aurochs? If that is not charisma then what is?urogallusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-428154684657383892017-02-22T14:52:43.735-08:002017-02-22T14:52:43.735-08:00Yeah, I only wanted to enmphatise that it was an E...Yeah, I only wanted to enmphatise that it was an European animal that could have been the most iconic animal in the nature "around us". Like the bear or the iberian lynx. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-86584490270378896622017-02-22T04:27:37.933-08:002017-02-22T04:27:37.933-08:00Yes, I think that's another main reason, I men...Yes, I think that's another main reason, I mentioned that in the post as well. Daniel Foidlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02924677790606716751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-55921268016769817812017-02-22T04:27:11.266-08:002017-02-22T04:27:11.266-08:00I think climate is the biggest barrier, they would...I think climate is the biggest barrier, they would simply die during winter. Daniel Foidlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02924677790606716751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-79339571896266198412017-02-21T14:45:48.416-08:002017-02-21T14:45:48.416-08:00The bantengs, gaurs ...etc are amazing animals tha...The bantengs, gaurs ...etc are amazing animals that I love to watch (I hope the Kouprey it´s not extinct...) but the auroch has something that make it a closer to us: It certainly lived on Europe and It would totally be living here if the human interference didn´t make them go extinct. <br />I think that people of this continent feel it closer to them because of that. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-36974704121448702172017-02-21T12:02:01.934-08:002017-02-21T12:02:01.934-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.David Kennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08635557752180739081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-55317766546751510202017-02-21T12:00:34.375-08:002017-02-21T12:00:34.375-08:00Hi Daniel, You are right, I made a few ambitious j...Hi Daniel, You are right, I made a few ambitious jumps there. The Forest elephant depends a lot on fruit from what I read, not much of that available in Europe's southern forests year round. It will be interesting to see more of these studies and the papers they are based on in future. Regards, DavidDavid Kennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08635557752180739081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-88156705399371252722017-02-21T09:39:30.585-08:002017-02-21T09:39:30.585-08:00I would say no, this idea probably wouldn't wo...I would say no, this idea probably wouldn't work. First of all, Palaeoloxodon antiquus was not a subspecies of L. cyclotis, that nature news article just says it is most closely related to it among living elephants (have not seen a paper on that study though). P. antiquus and L. cyclotis are from totally different climatic zones, African forest elephants would probably die here. They are not comparable in morphology and size either. Just because two animals are related, it does not mean that they are ecologically similar. <br />I also doubt that Europe really needs a proxy for Palaeoloxodon or Stephanochoerus; Europe's biodiversity did well without them during the last 30.000 years, it is not clear whether they have been killed off by humans or not. But if they were successfully cloned (theoretically), they would probably do no ecologic harm here, I think. Daniel Foidlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02924677790606716751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1222590081823739642.post-34641431625893095852017-02-20T15:10:06.642-08:002017-02-20T15:10:06.642-08:00Hi Daniel, I am looking forward to the results of ...Hi Daniel, I am looking forward to the results of the various breeding programs over the next few years, hopefully everything but especially size and horns will improve. I did a check on Elephas (Paleoloxodon) Antiquus, the Straight-tusked elephant on the web recently to see if the was any new information on this little known extinct European elephant. I was amazed to see an article in Nature.com by Ewen Callaway which describes the analysis of the Antiquus genome and found that it was extremely closely related to Loxodonta cyclotis, the African Forest elephant, much closer than that elephant is to the African Savannah elephant. Would this mean that Paleoloxodon Antiquus was a sub species of Loxodonta cyclotis and can we expect that Cyclotis would be a fully acceptable proxy for rewilding browsing in central and southern Europe? David KennyDavid Kennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08635557752180739081noreply@blogger.com