Tur is a wild bull (an extinct animal). Ancient Animals Who is the Natural Enemy of the Tour

When it comes to this representative of the fauna, a certain misunderstanding of the issue often arises. The fact is that a number of authoritative sources claim that the aurochs is an extinct animal. And information about the area of its modern habitat is immediately presented. But everything is easily explained when it becomes clear that the same name refers to completely different types animals.

Ancestor of domestic animals

Sad historical fact The fact is that the animal that the poet Vladimir Vysotsky mentioned in his early song: “Either a buffalo, or a bull, or a tour” is an animal that is truly extinct. This fact has been established and documented in a number of historical sources. The last tour on Earth died in 1627. Until this moment, their small herd was kept in the royal hunting grounds near Warsaw. It was this circumstance that made it possible to determine with such accuracy the date of the disappearance from the face of the earth of the relict ancestor of modern cattle. All domestic animals of this species descended precisely from this wild bull, which now does not exist in nature. But today the tour is presented only in the exhibitions of some zoological museums in the form of reconstructed skeletons and skulls. But even such remains give a very clear idea of what this animal looked like in reality. He looked quite impressive.

What do we know about the tour?

Studying the bone remains and surviving graphic images, we can conclude that the aurochs is an animal slightly less than two meters tall and weighing about eight hundred kilograms. Its habitat covered the entire middle lane continent of Eurasia from the Iberian Peninsula to Pacific Ocean. It was a powerful, muscular beast with large and sharp horns, dominating other representatives of the fauna. If we exclude man, then he had practically no natural enemies in nature. The extinction of this species was caused by both hunting for it and the catastrophic reduction of relict forests, which are its natural environment habitat. Currently, the tur is a rather mythological animal. His image is present both on medieval heraldry and on the coats of arms of some modern states and autonomous territories. The image of a wild bull, or aurochs, is widely represented in the folklore and mythology of many peoples of Europe and Asia.

Spanish bulls

In the ritual, which has remained unchanged since time, in addition to the bullfighter, the main character is the bull. It so happened historically that of all the large representatives, it was the Spanish bull that most retained the features of the relict aurochs. Currently, a number of biological experiments are even being carried out aimed at reviving and restoring the natural population of the tur. It is planned to use genetic technologies and clone the tur with the help of bone remains isolated from it. It is too early to talk about the results of this bold project, but it cannot be ruled out that in the near future, humanity will expect sensational news from the field of zoology.

Mountain tour

And another horned representative of the fauna was much more fortunate. In any case, there is no direct threat of extermination for him yet. The point here is a simple coincidence of names. Just like the relict bull that disappeared from the face of the earth, in zoology it is called whole family mountain goats, of which there are a total of eight species. So it's a completely different tour. The animal, whose photo adorns many zoology textbooks, lives on steep, inaccessible mountain slopes. And, despite the poaching of it, it is not going to die out yet. live mountain goats in many regions of Eurasia and northern Africa. They are distinguished by their unpretentiousness in food and the ability to survive in the most difficult conditions. natural conditions. According to the ability to move with high speed No one can compare with them on the almost vertical surface.

On the slopes of the Caucasus

On the territory Russian Federation also have their authorized representatives. The Caucasian tour is widely known. This animal lives in a remote part of the region, mainly in the area of the Russian-Georgian border, and has two varieties: Western Caucasian and Eastern Caucasian. Sometimes it is called Caucasian B recent years Alarming trends have emerged in the existence of these species. Their population has noticeably decreased, and this fact requires the adoption of vigorous legal measures aimed at preventing poaching. However, due to the complexity of the situation in many regions of the Caucasus, the implementation of security measures in practice environmental activities it's not that simple. It is not enough to list an endangered animal in the International Red Book; it is also necessary to ensure a real regime for its protection.

Eastern Hemisphere. Now considered extinct as a result economic activity humans and intensive hunting. The last individual was not killed while hunting, but died in 1627 in the forests near Yaktorova(in Poland, 50 km from Warsaw) - believed to be due to a disease that affected a small, genetically weak and isolated population of the last animals of this species.

† Tour

Scientific classification

International scientific name

Bos primigenius
(Bojanus, )

Area

Tour accommodation map

Security status

Extinct species

Taxonomy
on Wikispecies

Images
on Wikimedia Commons

ITIS
NCBI
EOL

Description

It was a powerful beast with a muscular, slender body, about 170-180 cm high at the withers and weighing up to 800 kg. The high-set head was crowned with long, sharp horns. The color of adult males was black, with a narrow white “strap” along the back, while females and young animals were reddish-brown.

Although the last aurochs lived out their days in the forests, previously these bulls stayed mainly in the forest-steppe, and often entered the steppe. They probably migrated to the forests only in winter. They ate grass, shoots and leaves of trees and shrubs. Their rut occurred in the fall, and the calves appeared in the spring. They lived in small groups or alone, and for the winter they united in larger herds. The aurochs had few natural enemies: these strong and aggressive animals could easily cope with any predator.

Spreading

IN historical time the tur was found throughout almost all of Europe, as well as in North Africa, Asia Minor, India and the Caucasus. In Africa, this animal was exterminated in the third millennium BC. e., in Mesopotamia - around 600 BC. e. In Central Europe, tours survived much longer. Their disappearance here coincided with intensive deforestation in the 9th-11th centuries. In the 12th century, aurochs were still found in the Dnieper basin. At that time they were actively exterminated. Records about difficult and dangerous hunt Vladimir Monomakh left for wild bulls.

By 1400, aurochs lived only in relatively sparsely populated and inaccessible forests in the territory of modern Poland, Belarus and Lithuania. Here they were taken under the protection of the law and lived as park animals on royal lands. In 1599, a small herd of aurochs - 24 individuals - still lived in the royal forest 50 km from Warsaw. By 1602, only 4 animals remained in this herd, and in 1627 the last aurochs on Earth died. However, the disappeared tour left its mark good memory: it was these bulls that became the ancestors in ancient times various breeds cattle. Currently, there are enthusiasts who hope to revive the aurochs, using, in particular, Spanish bulls, which more than others have preserved the features of their wild ancestors (lat. Bos taurus africanus). In the 1920s and 1930s, the Heck bull, bred with many characteristics of the aurochs, appeared in Germany. Modern fighting bulls that compete in bullfighting are considered to be the closest surviving bulls in phenotype to the aurochs; V Western Europe Efforts are underway to revive the tour.

Subspecies

†Bos primigenius primigenius(Bojanus, 1827) - Eurasian tour.
†Bos primigenius namadicus(Falconer, 1859) - Indian tour.
†Bos primigenius africanus(Thomas, 1881) - North African tour.

The tour is depicted in the petroglyphs of ancient people, depicted on the national coat of arms of the Republic of Moldova, on the coat of arms of the city of Kaunas, Lithuania, as well as on the coat of arms of the city of Turka in the Lviv region of Ukraine.

Efforts to bring the tour back

Adolf Hitler dreamed of reviving the extinct aurochs, widely represented in Teutonic mythology. The Nazi program to recreate the aurochs consisted of crossbreeding cattle brought from Scotland, Corsica and the French Camargue. The breed was developed by the brothers Heinz Heck (German). Heinz Heck) and Lutz Heck (German) Lutz Heck). After the fall of the Hitler regime, almost the entire population of “Nazi cows” - Heck bulls - was destroyed.

Currently Dutch environmental organization Taurus Foundation in the project TaurOs Project tries, by backcrossing primitive breeds of European cattle, to obtain an animal that, in its own way, appearance, size and behavior will correspond to the extinct aurochs. As part of a project carried out jointly with the nature protection organization European Wildlife, these animals will be used to conserve valuable natural grasslands in Central European countries.

In Poland, scientists from the Polish Association for the Reproduction of Tours (Polish. Polska Fundacja Odtworzenia Tura) to clone this extinct animal, they intend to use DNA preserved in bones from archaeological finds. The project is supported by the Polish Ministry of Protection environment.

Notes

, With. 516-517.
Domestication / Iordansky N. N. // Dynamics of the atmosphere - Railway junction. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2007. - P. 235–236. - (Big Russian Encyclopedia: [in 35 volumes] / chief ed. Yu. S. Osipov; 2004-2017, vol. 9). - ISBN 978-5-85270-339-2.
Bogoedova T. N. Slavic hydronymic continuants of Proto-Slavic *Tur-// Odessa linguistic visnik. 2013. VIP. 1.
Chikalev A. I., Yuldashbaev A. I.[ Breeding with the basics of private animal husbandry: a textbook for universities in the field of training 111801 "Veterinary" (specialist) - M. GEOTAR-Media, 2012 - ISBN 978-5-9704-2299-1 - P. 12

Most of us, looking at photographs of cave paintings, do not think about who exactly our ancestors depicted. Tigers, mammoths, bulls... Nothing interesting, somehow everything is unrealistic and the proportions are not respected...

FIERCE GIANTS

Primitive wild bulls, most often called aurochs, were huge. During the Pleistocene era (which ended about 12,000 years ago), the height of the male reached 2 m and the weight reached up to a ton. Gradually the tours decreased in size, it is assumed that this was facilitated by the disappearance of enemies after the last ice age. As a result, their height stopped at 180 cm, and their weight stopped at 800 kg.

It was from the aurochs that livestock came, although this fact for a long time remained a hypothesis: it was questioned that the habitat of the aurochs was too large, but later it was proven that the aurochs lived not only in Europe, but also in the Caucasus, North Africa and Asia Minor.

Externally, aurochs differed from modern bulls not only in size, but also in the length of their horns, which formed the shape of a lyre and could reach a meter in length. People were afraid of these animals, since aurochs often attacked hunters. Males were particularly ferocious, while females attacked only if a person approached the cub. The sharp horns pierced a person right through, and after the victim fell, the auroch trampled it.

The bull used his horns during mating games, and if he did not die during this period, he could live up to 15 years - this was exactly the life expectancy of ancient bulls.

SHOW YOUR REGISTRATION

Scientists disagree about the aurochs' habitat. Some believe that they lived in forests, others believe that primitive bulls preferred open spaces. Most likely, the aurochs loved pastures, since their main food was various herbs. And only after being forced into the forests did the bulls begin to eat leaves of trees and shrubs, as well as acorns.

The last individuals of aurochs lived in swampy forests, because open space they were even easier prey for hunters.

The Turs lived in small groups, but there were also those who preferred solitude. In winter, several groups united and formed a fairly large herd. Before calving, the females would go far into the forest and wait until the calf was strong enough to go to the field.

HUNT IS MORE THAN BONDAGE

The Turs that lived in different regions differed greatly from each other. North Africans were similar to Eurasians, but their color was lighter. The Indian subspecies was smaller in size. Judging by DNA tests, even aurochs from different parts of Europe had differences. However, this did not stop people from domesticating these animals 8,000 years ago. At first, this process had a purely ritual significance, then the aurochs began to be domesticated in order to be used as labor, and only some time later they began to be considered as a source of milk.

And then people. loved hunting. And it was because of hunting that the tours disappeared from the face of the earth. First, the North African ones disappeared, then the Mesopotamian ones... Soon the aurochs remained only in Central Europe, but due to deforestation in the Middle Ages and active hunting in the 15th century, wild bulls remained only in the modern territory, where they hid in inaccessible forests. At the end of the 16th century, they began to protect the aurochs, but it was too late. By that time, they lived only near Warsaw, and their numbers were sharply declining. And by 1620, only one female remained alive, who died seven years later of natural causes. So the tours disappeared from the face of the earth.

Today, scientists are not giving up attempts to revive the population of these amazing animals. They are experimenting with those types of modern bulls that most closely resemble the ancient ones (in particular with Spanish and Italian species), but, alas, the attempts do not lead to the desired result.

HITLER'S FAILED PLAN

By the way, the Nazis faced a similar problem at one time. In the 1930s there was a project to restore the prehistoric landscape and its flora and fauna. Goering became the curator of the project, and the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck worked on the revival of lost species. Lutz was the director of the Berlin Zoo, and Heinz was the director of the Munich Zoo. Long before Hitler came to power, the brothers began working on recreating the tur and forest tarpan. It took them about 14 years to bring out new tours. To create them, they took rather aggressive Spanish bulls and bison. Both of them were carefully selected, because new tour must have had a large body mass and long horns.

In 1932, a beast was born, which was called the “Heck bull,” but it was far from being a tour. The hake weighed only 600 kg, and the color was not the same. Perhaps the only thing that hake had in common with aurochs was aggressiveness, which was directed at absolutely everything: people, animals, trees.

For many years, the Heck bull could only be seen in the Munich and Berlin zoos. The breed's breeding program was so popular that the bred primitive bulls flourished and were used in Nazi propaganda materials during World War II. The Nazis dreamed of populating Belovezhskaya Pushcha with aurochs and hunting them for fun, but their plans could not be put into practice. The hake breeding center was destroyed by air strikes, and the animals that ran out were shot right in the streets, because they were very aggressive.

WORTHY OF CAESAR'S ATTENTION

Information about the ferocious tour is found in many manuscripts. In “Notes on the Gallic War,” Julius Caesar did not forget to mention the aurochs, writing that they are smaller in size than elephants and are relatives of bulls.

He noted that the aurochs run fast and it is impossible to feel safe if these bulls are nearby.

Caesar believed that they could not be domesticated and that those who had collections of the horns of killed aurochs were highly respected.

FROM MYTHS AND LEGENDS

If you remember the ancient myths, it will become clear. That it was the auroch that was exalted by many civilizations, the bull was considered the embodiment of one or another god, mentions of it are found not only in the myths of the Mediterranean, but also in, including in the ancient Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The cult of the bull was very developed in Crete and in. The Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, says that the supreme deity created a bull and a man, who created the world while simultaneously fighting evil forces - in the end they destroyed the bull. In Crete, acrobats performed tricks in the same arena with bulls, which was associated with the cult of fertility. Moreover, the Cretan monster Minotaur was half bull. In ancient times, Zeus was associated with a bull: just remember the myth about the abduction of the beautiful Europa by Zeus. Among the Slavs, the bull, along with the bear, was associated with the god Veles.

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. The tours were populated primarily by forest-steppe zones, however, 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 the warm season, 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

The aurochs was at one time one of the largest herbivores that lived after the 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 the 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 aurochs looked like in the photos 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.

Tour(lat. Bos primigenius) - primitive wild bull, the progenitor of modern cattle, the closest relatives are the Watussi and the gray Ukrainian cattle. Now considered an extinct animal.

The last individual was not killed in a hunt, but died in 1627 in the forests near Jaktorov - believed to be due to a disease that affected a small, genetically weak and isolated population of the last animals of this genus.

Tour(primitive wild bull), an artiodactyl animal of the genus of true bulls of the subfamily of bulls of the bovid family.

Completely extinct as a result of human economic activity and intensive hunting.

The aurochs is the ancestor of European cattle. Lived from the second half of the Anthropocene in the forest-steppes and steppes of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Turs were very beautiful and powerful animals with a muscular, slender body with a height at the withers of about 170-180 cm and a weight of up to 800 kg. The high-set head of the aurochs was crowned with long sharp horns. The color of adult male turs was black, with a narrow white “strap” along the back, while females and young animals were reddish-brown.

Although the last aurochs lived out their days in the forests, previously these wild bulls stayed mainly in the forest-steppe, and often entered the steppe. They probably migrated to the forests only in winter. Turs ate grass, shoots and leaves of trees and shrubs.

The aurochs' rut occurred in the fall, and the calves appeared in the spring. They lived in small groups or alone, and for the winter they united in larger herds. The aurochs had no natural enemies.

Turs are strong and aggressive animals that easily cope with any predator.

In historical times, the tour was found almost throughout Europe, as well as in North Africa, Asia Minor and the Caucasus. In Africa, this magnificent beast was exterminated in the third millennium BC. e., in Mesopotamia - around 600 BC. e.

In Central Europe, tours survived much longer. Their disappearance here coincided with intensive logging in the 9th-11th centuries. In the 12th century, aurochs were still found in the Dnieper basin. At that time they were actively exterminated. Records of the difficult and dangerous hunt for wild bulls were left by Vladimir Monomakh. By 1400, aurochs lived only in the relatively sparsely populated and inaccessible forests of Poland and Lithuania. Here they were taken under the protection of the law and lived as park animals on royal lands. In 1599, in the royal forest 50 km from Warsaw, a small herd of aurochs still lived - 24 individuals. By 1602, only 4 animals remained in this herd, and in 1627 the last aurochs on Earth died.

The disappeared tour left a wonderful memory of itself. It was these bulls that in ancient times became the ancestors of various breeds of cattle.

Currently, there are still enthusiasts who hope to revive the aurochs, using, in particular, Spanish bulls, which more than others have preserved the features of their wild ancestors