Aurochs-like cattle breeds: An overview

Of course Heck cattle is not the only aurochs-like cattle breed, not at all. But how many are there? This depends on where you draw the line. Compared with water buffalo, even Austrian Fleckvieh is “aurochs-like”. Therefore, this categorization is purely arbitrary. With the selection down below, I want to present you a list of breeds which have more than just a single aurochs-like feature (like a high-legged slender body in Chianina or huge thick horns in Watussi), but a good representation of several primitive traits. I was also struggling with myself about making a split between “phenotypically aurochs-like”, “ecologically aurochs-like” and “genetically aurochs-like” (also because sometimes I am accused of being too appearance-based), but this turns out to be very complicated. How to define and measure “ecologically aurochs-like”, including traits such as hardiness, heat/cold tolerance and food needs? There are no living aurochs that can be used as a model, and there are certainly regional differences in ecological requirements as well. The same as with genetics: there is simply not enough data (yet) to make such a list. It seems that the appearance of the cattle is the only really quantifiable aspect for such a list. Furthermore, it is questionable if such a split would be useful at all, because most, if not all, of the optically aurochs-like breeds are very hardy and robust and would be on the other list as well.

Curraleiro bull from Brazil

So here it is, my top 32 of the aurochs-like cattle on this world, roughly in alphabetical order (click on the breed if you want to see how they look like):

• Albera (Iberia)
• Alistana-Sanabresa (Iberia)
• Axarquia (Iberia)
• Barrosa/Cachena (Iberia)
• Buša cattle (Balkan)
• Caldela (Iberia)
• Camargue (France)
• Corriente/Criollo (Argentina)
• Corsicana (Corsica)
• Curraleiro (Brazil)
• Frieiresa (Iberia)
• (advanced) Heck cattle* (Central Europe)
• Lidia (derivations: Berrenda, Morucha) (Spain)
• Limia (Iberia)
• Pajuna (Iberia)
• Jersey cattle (England)
• Sayaguesa (Iberia)
• Maltese Ox (Malta)
• Maronesa (Iberia)
• Mirandesa (Iberia)
• Murnau-Werdenfelser (Germany)
• Monchina (Iberia)
• Mocanitsa (Romania)
• Pisano (Italy)
• Raca Preta (Iberia)
• Rhodopian Shorthorn/Carpathian brown (Eastern Europe)
• Steppe type cattle (Maremmana/Boskarin/Podolica, Hungarian Gray, Sykia)
• Serrana negra (Iberia)
• Terrena (Iberia)
• Tudanca (Iberia)
• Vianesa (Iberia)

* I only include advanced Hecks here (like Taurus cattle, the Wörth lineage, or herds at Hellabrunn or Solling-Vogler), because many of the usual Hecks are IMO not really worth mentioning here.

Sykia cattle from Greece

You might be wondering why there are only taurine cattle on the list. Well, I would include zebuine cattle here if I was aware of a breed that bears a good resemblance to the aurochs not only in one aspect like in the miniature zebu (colour) or Watussi (horns).

Very likely there are also some quite aurochs-like cattle in the Near East and North Africa, but those are virtually inaccessible to me except a few photos. Cattle from those regions tend to be small as well.