T. van Vuure’s scientific contributions

Unlike most of the other members of the wild cattle family, the aurochs is extinct. That means that not all data concerning this animal and its life history can be described, and that some aspects will be examined here in a different way than in other wild cattle species. Linnaeus (1758) described domestic cattle under the name of Bos taurus. He mentioned that at the time its wild ancestor was briefly described by the Roman commander-in-chief Julius Caesar under the name of urus (derived from the Germanic word ‘ur’). In 1827, Bojanus made the first osteological research on an aurochs skeleton and gave to this species the name Bos primigenius. Because he thought it came ‘before the Flood’, he added the word antediluvialis. Though the name given by Bojanus is widely used so far, more correctly the name given by Linnaeus should be employed, because he described the species first. The Spanish word for this animal, ‘uro’, comes directly from the Latin word urus. In both the English and the French languages the word ‘aurochs’ comes from the German word ‘auerochs’. For centuries, this latter word was mistakenly used for the wisent (Bison bonasus). Around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, during which the original aurochs became extinct in Germany, the word ‘ur’ gradually changed into ‘auer’ and ‘auerochs’ (Szalay 1915). When people were no longer aware of the original aurochs its name passed to a related animal, similarly impressive-the wisent. Such a process has been observed in other species too.

In this article, the results of a research (Van Vuure, in press) into the history, the morphology and the ecology of the extinct aurochs are briefly reviewed. Questions about the appearance of the natural Holocene landscape of Europe and the breeding-back experiments by the Heck brothers are addressed as well. After a millennia-long process of being hunted and ousted by man, the aurochs became extinct in Central Poland in 1627. Based on bone finds, pictures and descriptions it is possible to roughly outline the characteristics of the aurochs. It is evident that there is little resemblance as to morphology between aurochs and Heck cattle (results of the breeding-back experiments by the Heck brothers in Germany). From palynological and entomological data, descriptions by Roman writers and from the last European wilderness (the 'Great Wilderness' in former East Prussia) it is likely that the natural landscape that covered most of Europe, consisted of extensive dense forests, intermingled with fens and bogs, lakes and rivers. Probably, the favourite living area of the aurochs in this landscape were sedge marshes along rivers. For aurochs August and September were the mating season and May and June the birthing season. The main predator of the aurochs in Europe was the wolf. Based both on the appearance of the former natural European landscape and recent research into the impact of large herbivores on forest growth, it is concluded that this impact is marginal. Only with the help of man large herbivores are able to create and maintain an open park-like landscape.