The Breeding-Back of the Tarpan

Abstract

In Oryx, Vol. I, No. 3, the translation was published of an article by Heinz Heck entitled “The Breeding-back of the Aurochs”. In this Herr Heck described his experiments in resurrecting the aurochs, the wild ancestor of all present-day breeds of European cattle which became extinct over 300 years ago. The method used he calls “breeding-back” in which the aim is to direct the race back to a common ancestor. From skeletal remains and contemporary descriptions and paintings it was known what the aurochs looked like: a large neat, the bulls black with a broad yellowish-white stripe down the back and the cows red-brown; both sexes had white colouring round the muzzle and long, strong, curved, pale horns with black tips.