Fortune telling 

What an animal tour. Tour bull animal. Description, features and reasons for the extinction of the tour. Habitats of Caucasian turs in nature

Tur is a bull that today can only be seen in pictures. This is an extinct primitive species of wild cattle, which is the progenitor of all our modern cows. Let's find out about it together.

According to recent research by genetic scientists, the aurochs bull is the closest extinct relative of modern domestic cows. Many of the livestock species are domesticated forms of the Eurasian aurochs, which were completely wiped out in 1627. Today, the appearance of these animals is reminiscent of African Watussi bulls, gray Ukrainian cattle, and Indian gaur.

Watussi - modern look extinct bull

Thanks to numerous studies, today we can imagine not only what this bull looked like, but also how it lived and what it ate. Turs inhabited predominantly forest-steppe zones, but in winter they went into the forest, where they pulled out grass and shoots from under the snow. These large herbivores also ate leaves of trees and bushes. IN warm time For years, the animals lived in small groups or alone. But in winter they united in large herds. Due to their large size and very large horns, aurochs had no enemies in nature, but they were destroyed by human hands.

Origin

Turs inhabited the steppes and forest-steppes of the Eastern Hemisphere from the second half of the Anthropocene. Scientists have found images of these animals in Egyptian drawings, as well as in Ethiopia and Somalia. It is believed that bulls originally inhabited the banks of the Nile, then came to Africa and only then to India and Pakistan. Later, the aurochs inhabited the lands of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and North Africa. The first populations of these animals were destroyed in Africa, then they disappeared in Mesopotamia, and only in Central Europe did they manage to live long enough.

Initially, the number of turs decreased due to intensive deforestation; in the 12th century they migrated en masse to the banks of the Dnieper. But by the 15th century they were already living in small groups in the tundra forests of Poland and Lithuania. Here, due to their small numbers, they were taken under protection and lived in a protected area, mainly in the royal forests. However, this did not save them either. In 1599, only 29 individuals were recorded near Warsaw. After 4 years there are only 4 of them left.


Diorama of a man's battle with a tour

Interesting. Until now, scientists cannot say for sure what had such a detrimental effect on the life of the aurochs, but it is known that the last individual died in 1627 in the forests of Yaktorov, not at the hands of a hunter, but from illness. There is a possibility that the animals were crippled by a too weak genetic system that could not withstand the living conditions of that time.

Appearance

Tur at one time was one of the largest herbivores that lived after ice age. Today its size can only be compared with the European bison, as can be seen in the photo. Having several accurate studies by scientists, today we can imagine what the extinct species of bulls looked like. So, the aurochs was a large, muscular animal with a height at the withers of about 170-180 centimeters. The body weight of adult bulls was about 800 kilograms.

One of the decorations of this herbivore were sharp long horns. Their distinctive feature is their inward orientation and wide scope, as in the photo. In males, the horns reached 100 centimeters in length and had a diameter of up to 20 centimeters. The color of the males was dark brown, almost black, with characteristic wild species light stripes along the back.


The Spanish bull resembles its wild ancestor in appearance

Females were lighter with a reddish-brown coat color. It is important to note that initially there were two types of tours: Indian and European. Moreover, the latter was much larger than the Indian one. And although aurochs are considered the ancestors of domestic cows, their physique was slightly different, as can be seen in the photo.

For example, they had longer slender legs, a larger head, more massive horns and an elongated skull. It also had a significant shoulder hump, like a modern Spanish bull. Only rare breeds, such as the Pakhuna and the Maremman cow, have such similar external characteristics. The females were also different. They did not have such a pronounced udder, but instead, it was covered with hair and did not protrude from the side.

Attempt to revive the bulls

Today, the efforts of geneticists and zoologists are not in vain. Many scientists manage to revive some extinct species of animals, including trying to recreate the bull aurochs. For example, it is known that Adolf Hitler thought about this. During his reign, several attempts were even made to crossbreed cattle from France, Scotland and Corsica. However, these species did not survive after the fall of Hitler's regime.


Heck Bulls - an attempt to revive tours

Today, scientists are also trying to continue their earlier efforts. For example, the Dutch organization Taurus Foundation, by crossing some European breeds, is trying to get cows that resemble aurochs in appearance. However, obtaining the original large size of animals is still a work in progress.

Inspired by the successful revival of the extinct tarpan, Polish scientists are now also trying to recreate wild aurochs. Currently, their project is at the development stage and is supported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Photo gallery

We invite you to see what the bull auroch looked like in the photos provided below.

Video “Extinct Animals of the Cenozoic Era”

In this video you can see several more ancient extinct species of animals on our planet. Many of them are the progenitors of modern animals.

The animal aurochs is the wild ancestor of the domesticated cow. The exact year of death of the species is known - 1627. In that distant 12th century, they tried to preserve the last population of aurochs in the forests of Eastern Europe. However, it turned out to be too small to maintain the genotype of the species. So the last tours on Earth simply died out for genetic reasons. Most likely, they were ruined by inbreeding, that is, inbreeding, which accompanies all isolated small communities.

The animal aurochs is the wild ancestor of the domesticated cow

What the extinct wild bull looked like is known from cave paintings, descriptions and sketches from the period of book publishing, as well as from the remaining representatives of domesticated cows, which have still retained the maximum resemblance to their wild ancestor.

The closest relative of the aurochs is the Watussi bull. It is characterized by very long horns, penetrated by a system of blood vessels. The horns serve not only for defense and fights between males, but also for cooling the entire body. These cows are particularly resilient in difficult conditions of heat, drought, scarcity of feed and abundance of predators.

For many tribes equatorial Africa Watussi are almost the only source of food. Their natural properties were also appreciated by agricultural producers of the European type of economic organization. In the 60s of the 20th century, Walter Schultz transported two bulls and one cow to the American continent. So African cows began to explore the vast expanses of America.

In the 20s of the same century, an attempt was made in Germany to reproduce cows whose qualities were as close as possible to their wild ancestor. As a result, the hake bull was born. Germany of these times was already Nazi, so biological experiments on the reproduction of ancient bulls were highly politicized. Money was allocated to obtain a new breed of animals, in which the power of the body would be combined with a wild disposition.

It was decided to crossbreed bison and bulls, which are used for bullfighting. The result should have been huge cows that were aggressive.

The breed of cows got its name from the names of two brothers who were involved in this work. The brothers partially achieved their goal - the bulls turned out to be very aggressive. They rushed at people, animals, trees, fences. And here external resemblance It was not possible to achieve anything with the tour. This breed was more like an enlarged version of domestic cows with a wild disposition.

Further work was stopped by the arrival of war on German territory. Almost the entire breeding stock of hake bulls died.

However, scientists did not rest on this. They are trying to restore a semblance of the tour in Holland. In our time of molecular biology and genetics, this is possible. However, in any case, the restored tour will be phenotypically similar to the ancestor. After all, people know nothing about the genome of the real tour.

Gallery: animal tour (25 photos)

Tours of the Caucasus (video)

Basic characteristics of the animal

A tour is a cloven-hoofed animal from the bovid family, a subfamily of bulls, a genus of true bulls.

Its range covered almost all of Europe, with the exception of Scandinavia. The Asian part of the range included the entire Near East, Central Asia, southern Siberia, Far East. These bulls were found in India and northern Africa.

What does the bull that once inhabited look like? most Eurasia? If we summarize all the information about this animal, we get the following characteristics of the species.

  1. The Tur was a huge, muscular beast. Its size was somewhat inferior to that of the bison or bison, but still the ancestors of cows had the size and strength to withstand predators such as the lion or cheetah that once inhabited Central Asia And southern part Of Eastern Europe. The height of the tur at the withers was about 170-180 cm.
  2. The weight of the primitive bull ranged from 800 kg to a ton.
  3. The head was set high. This position is dictated by the need to wear long, sharp horns.
  4. The color of adult males was black, and there was a narrow white stripe along the back. Females were smaller and lighter in color. Their color was reddish-brown.

The largest wild bull in the world (video)

Biotope of cow ancestors

The extensive range of the large ungulate animal suggests that this ancestor of the cow could live in steppes, forests and even semi-deserts. However, the contours of the range were recreated based on paleontological finds, which does not always indicate that the animal was actually in its native biotope.

Such large animals usually live where there is a lot of grass. Find food in the taiga or dense mixed forest Such large animals living in herds would hardly be able to.

Turs are animals of steppes and forest-steppes. Their findings in arid zones indicate not so much that they could feed themselves in semi-deserts, but rather that other plant communities existed in this place at that time.

The existence of aurochs and bison in the forest zone was possible only if the forest was highly mosaic, that is, a combination of thickets with open forests, clearings and edges. In such conditions, huge herbivores could feed not only on grass, but also on branches of woody plants.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the tour was exterminated a very long time ago - in the third millennium BC. In Mesopotamia, there were no wild cows by 600 BC. e. This extermination was both direct and indirect. These animals were actively hunted, which, of course, reduced the population size. In parallel with this, there was an expansion of agriculture, which contributed to the expulsion of ungulates from their habitats.

It is not surprising that the last aurochs and bison survived in the dense forests of Eastern Europe. Residual tracts of these forests are concentrated on the territory of two countries - Belarus and Poland. They are called Belovezhskaya Pushcha. For some reason, these particular forests, located almost in the center of Europe, were not cut down, burned or plowed up. Turs and bison saved themselves in these forests not because they were especially good conditions. It’s just that in these wilds it was more difficult for a person to hunt them.

The aurochs were less fortunate than the bison. After all, by the time their last population died, these animals were no longer in the wild. The efforts of the local princes were somewhat late and, apparently, were ineffective.

A similar situation developed by the middle of the 20th century with bison. During the war they were practically exterminated. The remaining individuals were already rescued in captivity, but using advances in genetics. By crossing several individuals with bison, we managed to avoid the consequences of inbreeding.

In the Polish city of Jaktorow there is a monument to the last round. This is a reminder to people that it is easy to exterminate a species, but difficult and sometimes impossible to preserve or restore.

The Eurasian tur is a mammal ancient ancestor domestic cows. It is believed that these animals appeared about 2 million years ago and subsequently spread throughout Asia, Europe and northern Africa. The animal tur disappeared from all these territories gradually due to the following reasons: hunting, reduction of forest area, domestication.

The last place on the planet where the animal walked is the European continent; the last specimen of this animal was a female who died in 1627 in the forests of Poland.

Due to distribution across continents there were three subspecies of this bull:

  • European;
  • African;
  • Indian.

Each subspecies has contributed to the gene pool of modern domestic large cattle. So, African tour is the ancestor of modern African breeds, such as the Watussi bull. The Indian subspecies is the ancestor of modern European breeds.

Taxonomy

Very often, aurochs are considered European bison However, they are different animals. The first examples of this misunderstanding appeared in the second half of the 18th century, when the first naturalists from Europe began to compile the first biological classifications. At that time, the live aurochs had not existed for 100 years, and the number of bison was rapidly decreasing. About the tour and the bison in Western Europe There was no reliable information, so Karl Lennay decided to leave this question open.

Two opposing movements of naturalists immediately arose. Supporters of the first defended the thesis of the existence of a single wild species of cattle, considering both the bison and the aurochs to be representatives of the same species. In contrast, there was another opinion, whose adherents believed that domestic cows and wild bison were different animals, and therefore two different species must have existed in ancient Europe.

IN early XIX Centuries of excavation of dozens of skeletons scattered across Europe resolved the controversy. Studies of these skeletons have confirmed that the characteristics of the tour are very close to those of domestic cows and is different from the bison. Subsequently, African and Indian subspecies began to be distinguished within the bull species itself. The name "Aur" comes from the language of the ancient Gauls and means "wild mountain bull", a description of which is found in many Roman literary sources of the time. This animal is also called a wild bull in the Bible.

Gallery: ancient animal wild tour (25 photos)





















Short story

The first representatives of the aurochs bull trace their origins to central Asia approximately 2 million years ago. From here they gradually spread towards all parts of the world, reaching the territories of India, Russia, China, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Approximately 700-800 thousand years ago, the wild bull aurochs appears on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula and inhabits northern Europe, reaching Germany approximately 250,000 years ago. Climate change on the planet ensured the subsequent existence of three subspecies of the animal, which were mentioned earlier in the article.

Human pressure on wild aurochs increased over time, ranging from hunting it for meat (for this reason the animal disappeared from Great Britain around 1300 BC) to deforestation for agricultural purposes and competition for pastures with domesticated cows. Before the era of the Roman Empire, this species of mammals had already disappeared from the territories northern Africa, coasts Mediterranean Sea, Mesopotamia and India.

In the Middle Ages, only the European aurochs remained in the territory of eastern Germany, and in the 16th century the animals remained only in the territories of the Polish forests of Jaktor and Wiskitka. In 1476, these forests, along with the right to hunt in them, became property royal family and only the king had the privilege of killing the bull. During the reign of Sigismund the First the Elder and his heir, animals were treated very carefully, they made sure that people and other animals did not bother them, and in winter they fed the aurochs with hay. Subsequent kings were not so caring towards the ancestor of cows and continued to actively hunt them.

Several censuses of the number of Polish aurochs reflect its slow decline, so in 1564 there were 38 specimens, in 1566 only 24 individuals remained, in 1602 only 5 individuals were found, 4 males were killed while hunting in the next 20 years, the last female died of natural causes in 1627 year.

Description of the animal's appearance

The European aurochs was a robust animal, with a hunched back as a result of long vertebrae. The animal's head was large and longer than that of modern domestic cows. Below is a reconstructed image of an extinct wild bull what he looked like.

He had huge and strong horns, white at the base and black at the ends of the horns. The length of the horns could reach 1 m, with a shape in the form of an ancient lyre. The animal had long limbs, so it could develop impressive speed. The average height of the animal to the rump ranged from 160 to 180 cm, in the case of males it could reach 2 m. Based on the description of the animals in Roman and medieval sources, it can be concluded that they had dark fur.

Animal behavior

These animals were aggressive, capable of attacking anyone who did not maintain sufficient distance, very strong and fast, which could even attack a person. Animals united in herds consisting of males, females and their young. Herd size varied. Old males usually left the herd and led single life. According to Polish chronicles of the 16th and 17th centuries, the country in which the last representatives of this species lived, mating of animals took place in August and September. In May and June, offspring were born.

The animal's habitat is dense forests and plains. Moreover, in areas with more vegetation and water, the number of livestock was higher than in other areas. The aurochs is a herbivore, so it ate various types of leaves, grass and soft branches. The animals most likely migrated according to the seasons, moving at intervals similar to how African antelopes do today. The natural enemies of the aurochs were the following animals:

  • lions (before their extinction in Europe);
  • wolves;
  • the Bears.

Domestication of the aurochs

Gene analysis various types modern cows confirmed that the domestication of the aurochs occurred in various places And different peoples. First mention of domestication of wild bull found in Greece and are about 8,500 years old. A little later, the tour was domesticated in India, Asyria, from where it was transported to Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Canaan and Egypt. Around the first millennium BC, there are references to the domestication of tur on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula, brought there through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Attempts to recreate the species

In the 1920s German brothers Lütz and Heinz Hecki proposed to “recreate” an extinct type of aurochs by crossing different types of cows, while selecting for typical aurochs characteristics in each generation. The result was the appearance of the species "Heck's tur" or the more common name "Hake's bull". The breed developed had big sizes body, was strong, had long horns and black or brown fur. However, critics attacked the new breed already when the first “Heck bull” was born.

The fact is that many characteristics of the bred breed did not correspond to reality and were the result of breeder mistakes. At the same time, the resulting “Heck Tur” had even less similarities with the ancient wild bull than other domestic breeds of cows. In various places on the planet, natural selection led to the emergence of breeds of cattle, which in their characteristics were closer to the aurochs than the “Heck bull”.

Indeed, Van Voor even showed that modern Indian bulls are closer ancestors of the wild aurochs than the Heck bull. The experiment to recreate the race of the ancient aurochs failed, although at present this unsuccessful artificially bred species of bull is included in the natural reserve of the Netherlands and Germany.

Moreover, these supposed modern aurochs continue to represent animals that do not resemble the ancient aurochs in size, horn length, or coat color. If we consider the aspect of temperament, then the situation here is even worse, since the bred species is unable to obtain a sufficient amount of food in winter time and is unable to defend itself from wolves. For these and other reasons, critics consider the experiment a failure and sneer that Heck's aurochs are simply domestic cows that have been taken out of their stalls and forced to live in the forest. Professor Z. Pusek, responsible for the program for restoring the European bison in the forests of Poland, called the Heck bull “the biggest scientific hoax of the 20th century.”

Currently, attempts to recreate the ancient tour continue For example, it should be said about the TaurOs project, which is based on the exact genetic and morphological characteristics of ancient animals. In this project, greater preference is given to breeds that have primitive characteristics, such as the highland Scottish bull, the Hungarian steppe bull, the dwarf Turkish bull and others.

Attention, TODAY only!

In the black book of animals you can find many species that humans have destroyed through hunting, deforestation and pollution of the ecosystem. Each of these stories is unique and represents a horrific crime, but some of them are reminders of the confrontation between nature and humanity, as was the case with the primeval bull known as the aurochs.

This animal, which finally became extinct in 1627, is known as the ancestor of modern cattle.

Turs were destroyed for meat and fun until these proud and strong animals were on the verge of complete extinction, but even then, taking into account the laws on the protection of bulls, it was not possible to save the species.

Biological characteristics

The wild bull represented everything that the bullfighters from Spain valued in his “heirs.” It was a strong animal, reaching a height of 180 centimeters at the withers. The color of the aurochs bulls was predominantly dark, the wool was thick and very hard. Such a bull weighed over 800 kilograms and could knock down a person at full speed and literally trample him to death.

Comparative sizes adult tour with a person

Distinctive feature in the wild aurochs, these are horns that are twisted and empty inside, as well as a peculiar strip of light hair on the spine. In addition to meat, the extinct species of bulls was incredibly valuable due to these very horns and skins.

Habitat

Approximate map with the habitat of the tour

The tour lived mainly in forest-steppe zone throughout Europe and much of Asia, including Mongolia, China, Turkey and India.

The main period during which the maximum concentration of these animals fell was the second half of the Anthropocene.

At a time when the number of bulls was not yet controlled and they were freely shot, aurochs roamed the steppe in huge herds. Later, groups of 6-10 individuals began to appear, and later even fewer.

Farming was the first reason for the gradual extinction of wild bulls. Cultivation of fields and forests forced animals to migrate until the last of them died of old age or disease.

200 years before the last round left this world, bulls inhabited only very remote, isolated wooded areas of Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. At that time, the aurochs were already protected by law, but the number of individuals was rapidly declining. By 1602, the number of bulls had decreased to 4 individuals, after which the complete extinction of the species was just a matter of time.

Death of the last bull

In 1627, the last tour died in a wooded area near the village of Yaktorovo, which is located in the Lviv region of Ukraine. The cause of the bull’s death was not hunting, since the population was already under the strictest protection, but from disease.

An unknown virus has affected the genotype of an isolated herd, the last one on Earth. The death of the tour served as a kind of sign for many animal rights activists around the world, even though this movement at that time was hardly in its infancy.

After this, attempts to revive the aurochs periodically appear in the world, which led to the emergence of several “hybrids,” including fighting bulls.

Jokes with genetics

First known history An attempt to “resurrect” the tour was the experiments of Hitler, who dreamed of the history of restoring the most striking image of Teutonic mythology.

The brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck tried to breed the aurochs by crossing three different breeds livestock: French Camargue, as well as bulls from Corsica and Scotland.

The entire population of Hake bulls, which, by the way, had appearance Tur, but an easy-going disposition, was destroyed after the fall of the Nazi regime.

Later, experiments were carried out by civilian laboratories in Western Europe.

On this moment The most successful artificial breeding of cattle remains the Watussi, which is common in Africa. The aurochs never migrated that far south, so this subspecies is significantly different from the “original.”

Why did the aurochs population die out?

There are two main versions of why the wild bull ceased to exist in its original form and became extinct.

Tur, as an animal accustomed to a certain type of territory, had a very hard time with the “humanization” of most wild lands. The gradual self-isolation of the aurochs led to the fact that the species became extinct, although it could assimilate with other breeds of livestock.

The second version is hunting. Bulls were not just desirable, but high-status prey, so every hunter considered it his duty to find and destroy such an animal. At the same time, the tour was not deprived natural enemies, for example, large cats and wolves.

Coupled with a rather slow reproductive cycle and the lack of numerous offspring, this led to the extinction of bulls.

Who is the closest “relative” of the tour?

The Spanish fighting bull is closest to the phenotype of the European subspecies of the aurochs. The tur was a wild animal and practically could not be domesticated; such a character was extremely in demand in bullfighting, a Spanish bullfight.

In addition, several varieties of livestock in Europe have inherited certain genetic traits from the aurochs, such as curled horns. However, no animal has reached the same size or come close to reconstructing a complete biological picture of the subspecies.

The tour is depicted on the coat of arms of Moldova in memory of dead form. Some zoologists claim that the aurochs may well have given rise to most of the current species of livestock, but were much tougher and stronger.

This could be a significant advantage and even partially solve the problems of the meat and dairy industry.

The death of the last round not only erased all traces of an entire species of animals, it again proved that the most terrible predator on Earth is man.

What the animal looked like can now be found out only by examining pictures and reconstructions of it. appearance. Now representatives of this species artiodactyl mammals are considered extinct. Their closest relative, the Watussi bull, widespread throughout Africa, has now retained the features inherent in their wild, extinct relatives. The last wild individuals were exterminated approximately 300 years ago.

The aurochs are now considered extinct

Habitat

Thanks to genetic research The available bone remains of animals revealed where the extinct aurochs lived. The cows that appeared in Eurasia most likely originated from these massive bulls. Representatives of gray Ukrainian cattle exhibit especially clearly the features of a long-gone animal. However last wild tour was destroyed in 1627 Turs in the 2nd half of the Anthropocene inhabited all steppe and forest-steppe zones of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Initially, wild bulls were distributed along the entire length of the Nile River. Subsequently, they entered the territory of India, Pakistan and Africa. Much later, the aurochs settled in the forest-steppe zone of Europe, the Caucasus and Asia Minor. The spread of tours and their rapid relocation was facilitated by mass felling trees in the 6th century. This has resulted in a significant limitation of suitable habitats for aurochs. First, the population of these animals was completely destroyed in Africa, and then in India and Asia.

The wild ancestors of the cow migrated to the banks of the Dnieper. By the 9th century The wild bull tur was found in the forest-tundra zone of Lithuania and Poland. In central Europe, the animal population survived until the 16th century. Here they are long time were under protection, but even living in the protected royal forests did not save them. In 1559, near Warsaw, 29 representatives of these wild ancestors cows, but after 3 years their number was only 4 individuals.

What color and exterior does a mousey horse have?

Scientists do not know what exactly caused the species to become extinct almost everywhere. Although human activity may indeed have affected numbers, many other wild relatives of the domesticated cow have adapted effectively and now maintain their populations at relatively large numbers. It is possible that the extinct wild bull aurochs became a victim of its genome, which made it unadapted to a changing habitat and climate shifts. There is a version that new diseases could mow down the majestic creatures. This theory is not without foundation, because the last famous representative The breed died precisely because of an unknown disease.

Appearance of animals (video)

Characteristics of the tour

What a bull looks like, which disappeared from the face of the earth more than 300 years ago, was determined thanks to the remaining bone elements, as well as drawings by naturalists of those eras when unique creations still roamed the earth. Tur was one of the largest animals that lived after the end of the Ice Age. Scientists believe that its size was comparable only to the dimensions of the living European bison.

Thanks to the remaining bone evidence of the presence of aurochs on earth, it was revealed that their average height at the withers it reached approximately 170-180 cm. The body weight of the bulls varied from 800 to 1100 kg. The animal's body was elongated. Its length reached 3 m. The ancient bull, which lived in India, was distinguished by more modest sizes. The muscles of the European animal were very well developed. Distinctive feature these animals had horns.

Wild goats: species, habitats and lifestyle

They had the following characteristics:

  • size up to 90 cm;
  • up to 20 cm in diameter;
  • widely spaced;
  • growing from the sides of the head;
  • forward directed;
  • slightly curved back ends

Wild cows of this species were less impressive in size. The animal's head was compact, but slightly elongated. Some researchers believe that the tours were different poor vision, but had sensitive hearing. Females were usually smaller in size than males. Among other things, gender could be easily determined by color.

The males had a dark brown coat color with characteristic light stripes along the back. Females had reddish-brown fur. Representatives of both sexes had a small hump.

These ancestors of the modern cow had a rather tough temperament. Bulls were especially dangerous during the rut. Wild bulls lived in small herds, reaching about 30 animals. The basis of the diet was various herbs. In the summer, these creatures sought to eat as much nutritious vegetation as possible in order to accumulate sufficient fat reserves that could help them survive extreme cold. In winter, ancient bulls could swallow young branches and dig out withered hay, mosses, and lichens from under a layer of snow. Natural enemies this animal were wolves. At the time when these majestic bulls roamed Europe, large packs of gray predators were also present in their areas of distribution.

Gallery: tour (30 photos)

Revival attempts

IN Lately In some countries of the world, work is underway to restore long-extinct animals. Tours are no exception. The work is being carried out in 2 directions. Some scientists are trying to obtain intact DNA. Others are trying to create a wild bull by crossing ancient domesticated cow breeds. In Holland, a special Taurus fund was even created, which is engaged in obtaining bulls that are outwardly indistinguishable from aurochs.