Thursday, 27 March 2014

Newborn calf at the Lippeaue

UPDATE: Part of the numbers in this post were wrong, they should be correct now. 

OK, there are probably numerous calves that get born in the population counting approx. 90 animals at the Lippeaue per year. But I report this one because it is of an interesting combination. 

See here for the bull calf

This bull calf was born in a recently formed herd at Kleiberg, which counts 5 adult and subadult individuals yet. Her mother is one of the first cross animals of Taurus cattle, a 13 years old Chianina x Heck cow named Ludovica, fullblood sister of the bull Luca. The breeding bull is named Linnet, son of a pure Sayaguesa bull and a 37,5% Heck, 50% Sayaguesa and 12,5% Chianina cow (not a half-Sayaguesa though) - and therefore the bull is 18,75% Heck, 75% Sayaguesa and 6,25% Chianina and of the fourth cross generation. There are no photos of Linnet as an adult bull on the web, and I did not see him personally, but I saw him in a video on German TV, and he looked a bit like a larger version of a Lidia bull with thicker horns to me. The snout wasn't that long though. 

Why am I mentioning that calf? It is a fift-generation calf - there are surely much more - and I am curious on how that bull will work out. This calf is a 34,725% Heck, 37,5% Sayaguesa and 28,125% combination. Inheritance works by chance, but his father looks very good, and the half-Chianina mother is able to pass on a full Chianina chromosome set, so I hope this bull might become an even larger but still nicely aurochs-like bull. And if not this one, another calf of these parents might. It looks like it has no apparent dilution expressed, so its coat should become good (it still might develop a light saddle). 

UPDATE#2: That's what the bull looks like today

1 comment:

  1. This handsome little calf made me look for photos of bison calves (not very similar of course) and I found this video of actual natural selection forces, wolves attacking a bison calf protected by the cow: http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/north-america/videos/bison-and-her-calf-battle-wolves.htm
    (Best to turn off the sound to avoid the annoying commentary, music and phony sound effects)
    It gives an idea what the power and ferocious temperament of the aurochs must have been like...

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