Taurus
cattle refers to Heck cattle that result from crossing-in of mostly Southern
European aurochs-like breeds. This project was started by the German
conservation groups ABU (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Biologischer Umweltschutz) and NABU
(Naturschutzbund), additionally there is a herd in Hortobagy National Park,
Hungary. The purpose of this crossbreeding is to add aurochs-like features in
Heck herds that are usually missing in that breed, such as long legs, an
athletic body, large body size and forwards-facing inwards-curving horns.
In Germany
It started
in 1996 when the ABU added Chianina and subsequently Sayaguesa and Lidia (Spanish
fighting cattle) to their herds in the Lippeaue, North-Rhine Westphalia [1]. A
short description of these three breeds:
Sayaguesa: Large* breed; aurochs-like colour except for a
very reduced sexual dichromatism and sometimes reduced primitive markings;
small to medium-sized horns of variable curvature, facing forwards;
long-legged, comparably athletic body with a well-pronounced S-shaped back;
skull shape longish and aurochs-like; dewlap usually large, udder small to
medium-sized;
Chianina: Very large breed; basic wild colour gene but
dilution genes cause a white colour, no sexual dichromatism; small to very small
horns of variable curvature; long-legged, slender body; head comparably small,
shorter than in the aurochs; dewlap and udder usually small;
Lidia: small breed; aurochs-like colour except for
occasionally dark cows or bulls with saddles, or reduced markings; medium-sized
horns curving forwards and inwards; very athletic body with a well-pronounced
S-shaped back; head large and as long or shorter than in the aurochs; dewlap
and udder size variable;
* As usual,
I consider breeds with bulls below 140 cm at the withers a small breed, 140-150
cm medium-sized, 150-160 large, 160-180 very large-sized.
The Heck
cattle the ABU started with were mostly from of the Neanderthal lineage, which
(as I mentioned in an earlier post) display useful coat colour and horns. Lippeaue
is the most important Taurus cattle breeding centre, where a number of herds
roam the reserve freely all the year round . There are several grazing projects
breeding Taurus-influenced Heck cattle in Germany. Besides Lippeaue, another
interesting Taurus-influenced herd lives in Cuxhavener Küstenheiden in
Niedersachsen, and the Schmidtenhöhe in Rheinland-Pfalz (where a number of Heck
and Taurus cows are crossed with a Sayaguesa bull that looks Avilena-influenced
to me).
Since
Taurus cattle has a more than 15 years-long history now, F3 and perhaps even F4
individuals are born already and all possible combinations of the four breeds
exist. Judging from what I have seen so far, Taurus cattle usually have a
long-legged and more athletic body than usual Heck cattle, and particularly the
Sayaguesa crossbreeds have longish, aurochs-like skulls. The horns usually grow
forwards (though not always inwards) and are medium-sized on average. As far as
I can tell, the desired increase of body size has been achieved to some degree:
“Lucio”, a half-Sayaguesa bull, had a withers height of nearly 165 cm [2].
Lidia-crossbreeds remain at small size, but nevertheless have a good body and
horn shape. Half-Chianina usually have a lightly coloured coat and comparably
small horns, but also grow larger and have longer legs. Sayaguesa results in
cattle with a correct aurochs colour (a very strong red and black portion),
long skulls and sometimes also correct horn shape.
This bull
is a Sayaguesa x (Heck x Chianina) cross that lives in the Lippeaue:
Half-Chianina
bull and other crosses on panoramio.com:
More Taurus crosses:
Heck x Sayaguesa bull:
Another bull
of the ABU (I don’t know what combination it is, but it might be (Heck x
Chianina) x (Heck x Sayaguesa)):
You get
another sneak-peak of a herd in the Lippeaue in this video:
Some
individuals from the Cuxhavener Küstenheide:
Schmidtenhöhe
(IMO, some of the pure Heck cows there are not very useful for effigy
breeding):
Taurus
cattle do just as well as other Heck cattle in grazing projects, as do
Sayaguesa and Lidia. Only Chianina has a less dense winter coat and might be
not as tolerant to the cold winters of central Europe. Like most cattle in
grazing projects in Germany, Taurus cattle usually are fed supplementary during
winter because the areas they live in are not large enough to provide enough
food for the herds during winter. I think that Taurus cattle should be regarded
as just as hardy and robust as other Heck cattle until proven otherwise.
The use of
Lidia might be problematic because that breed is bred for aggression, but I
have been told that Lidia crossbreeds are not aggressive but simply more shy
and cautious, and therefore more difficult to handle (like any wild bovine
would be).
In Hungary
The National park Hortobágyi,
Hungary’s largest national park, has herds of Taurus- and Heck cattle in a
grazing project as well. This national park is running an awesome project in
cooperation with the Zoo Köln, Germany. It covers large areas with a very
diverse avifauna and mammal fauna, and grazing animals are used to maintain
these open areas that are habitat to all these species (critically endangered
ones like the Great Bustard among them). So Przewalski’s horses, Kulan and
Heck/Taurus cattle have been introduced in this reserve, also to conduct
scientific studies on how cattle and horses differ in food procession,
vegetation use and cold adaption.
Additionally to the
breeds used in Germany, they also use some other breeds, most notably
Hungarian Steppe cattle: medium-sized
breed; basic wild colour but dilution genes result in a grayish coat with very
reduced sexual dichromatism; horns upright, straight and large; body shape
usually slender and comparably long-legged; short skull shape; dewlap and udder
usually small to medium-sized;
There are
two herds, one in Pentezug, composed of the more aurochs-like individuals, and one in Karácsonyfok, which is the
herd with experimental crosses with influence of Watussi cattle, Gray cattle
and also one half Holstein-Frisian cow. The Pentezug herd has pure Heck cattle
as much as Taurus crossbreeds and Heck x Gray cattle crosses. I don’t know how
the present cross results in Hortobagy look like, but some individuals on older
photos (2008) look quite decent while others do not (I am not very fond of
most of the pure Heck cattle there):
There are about 200
Heck/Taurus cattle in Hortobagy, enough that the responsible people want to use
consequent selection to achieve a closer resemblance to the aurochs. While I am
open to how the Watussi crosses will work out, I would not have used the
influence of Frisian (a very derived breed that brings in the genes for white
spots and is far from being hardy and robust). Hungarian Gray cattle causes
undesired features on the one hand (gray colour, upright horns), but might be
useful for achieving a more slender body with bigger horns. Furthermore, it is
a very hardy and cold-adapted breed that is suited to the Puszta, what might
help to adapt the herds to the local climate. Sadly, the Heck/Taurus cattle in
Hortobagy seemingly have problems in coping with the winters there while the
Przewalski horses do not [4]. Some say that is because cattle are not suited to
such a habitat, but we know that the aurochs inhabited the Eurasian steppe as
well. I don’t know if it is legally possible, but natural selection and/or
selective breeding could solve that in the future, hopefully. At least during
the winter of 2011, supplementary feeding was not necessary for the first time
because of the mild temperatures.
The breeders in Germany
and Hungary cooperate by exchanging individuals to speed up the progress. Personally,
I prefer the German Taurus herds, they look more aurochs-like and progressed
judging from what I have seen so far.
Interestingly, an
increasing number of Heck cattle breeders get interested in Taurus crosses, so
that there is no clear distinction between Taurus cattle and usual Heck cattle.
 |
| Taurus-influenced Heck cattle |
Should Taurus cattle be
considered a separate breed? I don’t think so, in my view these crossings are
just the work that should have been done after WWII. Taurus cattle bring in
important aurochs-like features that are missing in the pool of usual Heck
cattle, and combined with well-selected Heck cattle like the Wörth lineage, it
might be possible to breed a complete aurochs effigy from that population. The
seemingly poor performance in Hortobagy worries me, but the Puszta is a habitat
very different from central Europe. It would indeed be interesting to see a
large area with well-selected Taurus-influenced Heck cattle roaming completely
wild in Germany, to see how their usage of food and adaption to the climate,
behaviour and phenotype would change.
Nevertheless, we should
not forget that Taurus-influenced Hecks are not stable yet. It is still in the
stage of crossbreeding and throwbacks can occur. So the future selection of
Taurus cattle has to focus on stabilizing the phenotype (and not to neglect the
hardiness and climatic adaption at the same time) and breeding out unwanted
traits that the breeds bring in (such as very small horns, a very light colour
or black cows).
You can find some more
information on Taurus cattle and photos of F1 individuals in these PDFs:
Literature
- [1] Matthias Scharf: Naturentwicklungsgebiete mit Heckrindern in der Lippeaue im Kreis Soest.
- [2] Bunzel-Drüke, Finck, Kämmer, Luick, Reisinger, Riecken, Riedl, Scharf & Zimball: "Wilde Weiden: Praxisleitfaden für Ganzjahresbeweidung in Naturschutz und Landschaftsentwicklung
- [3] Frisch, Walter: Der Auerochs – das europäische Rind. 2010.
- [4] Waltraut Zimmermann, Lydia Kolter, Istvan Sandor: Naturschutzprojekt Hortobagy – Jahresbericht 2003. Zeitschrift des Kölner Zoo 2004.
Watusi bull:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.odditycentral.com/pics/worlds-largest-horns.html
http://archive.thv11.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=105247
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-4000/largest-horn-circumference-bull/
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/size/largest-horn-circumference-steer
if you want to breed something like the auroch why not use the gaur and cross with a chianina or marchigiana for size ?
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