The colour of the African aurochs

I did a post on the African aurochs a few years ago. In that post, I outline that it is likely that the bulls of this subspecies had a light colour saddle on their back, instead of being entirely black except for the dorsal stripe as the European aurochs evidently was. This is because at least three depictions of African aurochs bulls show this trait very clearly. This might not be the full story, however. 

 

Part of the reason why I am saying this is the ancient Egyptian aurochs depiction described in Beierkuhnlein 2015: 

from [1]

It shows an aurochs bull, a cow and a calf. It is somewhat stylized (see the horns), but rather detailed. It shows the white muzzle in the cow (the mouth of the bull and calf are not preserved), it shows either a rather broad dorsal stripe in the bull or a colour saddle (that is probably open to interpretation), a narrow dorsal stripe in the cow and a possible dorsal stripe in the calf similar to what is depicted in the bull. The colour of the bull seems to be a little bit darker than that of the cow, but still is brown. However, there is also a depiction of a dark brown aurochs bull from Europe that is also very stylized, and as I mentioned, the depiction is a bit stylized. So it’s still possible that the bull this artwork was based on was black. But what is most interesting to me is that the bull has light areas on the dewlap, belly and inner sides of the legs. Also the cow and the calf have a lightly coloured belly. 

When I first noticed that I did not really care about that because I thought the artwork is stylized anyway, so it could be artistic license. However, these light areas are a trait often seen in many zebus. In fact, I have not yet seen a male wildtype-coloured zebu without taurine influence that does not at least have lightly coloured “armpits”, often the light area extends to the dewlap and entire belly and the inner sides of the limbs. This Sahiwal bull shows this kind of colour: 

If these light areas were present in the Indian aurochs, which was the wildtype of the zebu, it might not be that far-fetched to assume their presence also in the African aurochs. This would be in agreement with this ancient artistic depiction. Regarding the width of the dorsal stripe, I think it is possible that the African aurochs had a broad dorsal stripe in the shoulder area while the European aurochs had a narrow one (about “two fingers wide” as Schneeberger reported). I have seen dorsal stripes that get rather broad in the shoulder area in one Heck bull, one Pajuna bull and one Maronesa bull. African aurochs likely influenced African taurine cattle, which left a mark in some Southern European breeds, so it is not impossible that a broad dorsal stripe is a legacy of African aurochs introgression. This is speculative, especially as it is not clear if the artist of the depiction intended to draw a broad dorsal stripe or a saddle. I am inclined to think the artist did not differentiate between both structures. 

I also found a depiction of a bull with a very similar or possibly the same colour. It’s from a mural in the tomb of Nefertari. It is clearly black, has light areas on the ventral side of the trunk and the inner area of the legs, and also has this either broad dorsal stripe or colour saddle (go here). I am pretty sure it shows a domestic bull because it is shown along other clearly domestic bovines based on their colour (go here). But it could be a hint that this colour was found in the local aurochs type, as there likely was introgression from mauretanicus into North African taurine cattle. It could be a hint, but it certainly does not have to be. 

If the African aurochs had this lightly coloured area on the ventral side of the body plus a broad dorsal stripe, it might have looked like this: 

Personally, I find this colour scheme incredibly beautiful and also rather colourful and rich in contrast. But it is just as plausible that North African aurochs did not have these lightly coloured areas and were all black except for the saddle, dorsal stripe and muzzle ring. The evidence simply is not clear or plentiful enough to tell the exact colour of Bos primigenius mauretanicus. 

 

[1] Beierkuhnlein: Bos primigenius in ancient Egyptian art – historic evidence for the continuity of occurrence and ecology of an extinct key species. 2015.