Tour bull: what it looked like and where the extinct species lived, attempts to recreate

Tours are primeval extinct bulls. This is a wild population, whose representatives are considered the ancient ancestors and progenitors of the modern cow. The closest relatives are African Watussi bulls, whose appearance is as identical as possible to the disappeared relatives. You can find out how the real tours looked like only from reconstructions, since there are no real photos of bulls.

Origin of species and description

Eurasian turs - artiodactyl mammals from the bovid family. Appeared in the second half of the Anthropogenic period (about 2 million years ago).Distributed and inhabited the territory of Europe, North Africa, Asia. Individuals were the largest animals after the ice age. Tur is the ancient ancestor of modern cattle.

It was possible to restore the look of an ancient bull using the found bone structures and drawings of naturalists:

1. Muscular powerful physique, elongated body shape.
2. The size of an adult bull: length - 3 m, height - about 1.8 meters, weight - 800-1100 kilograms.
3. Compact head sizes. Shape - elongated.
4. Meter wide pointed horns, giving a frightening look.
5. Adult bulls were black or black-brown, with light stripes running down their backs. Females, young animals had a brown or reddish color.
6. The presence of a small hump on the shoulder part of the body.
7. Cows had small udders completely hidden in thick fur. Compared to modern individuals, the udder of female aurochs was poorly developed.

The Primordial Bull had many virtues to help him survive. This is a dense coat, hardy disposition, unpretentiousness and feeding on pasture. Individuals quickly adapted to different natural conditions: they lived in the forest zone, open steppe, and even in swampy areas. Females were highly prolific (they produced offspring every year).

Where did you live and what did you eat?

Initially, the tours lived on the banks of the Nile, gradually inhabiting Africa, India, Pakistan. Later, bulls appeared on the territory of Asia Minor, the northern regions of Africa, and Europe. In Africa, the tur population was destroyed before our era, in Europe, individuals lived until the 16th century:

1. From the 12th century, turs met in the Dnieper river basin.
2. In the 14th century they lived in the impenetrable and sparsely populated forests of Lithuania, Belarus, Poland. Here they were taken under state protection. They have become park dwellers.
3. By the end of the 15th century, a herd of 24 aurochs survived near Warsaw. But by the beginning of the 16th century, this herd was reduced to 4 individuals.
4. The last ancient tour died in 1627.

Bulls were completely herbivores. In the summer months, they had enough of the green vegetation of the steppes. In winter, they moved to the forest area in search of food. Here individuals united in large herds. Due to the beginning of deforestation, the tours often starved in the winter, for many of them this caused death.

Character and lifestyle of the breed

The nature of the tours was mostly calm. They did not attack people and animals, did not lead an aggressive lifestyle. Bulls only became enraged during heat or when they needed protection.

In such cases, the animals turned into real monsters (considering their equipment), the opponents could only run. Therefore, people hunted ancient bulls only in large groups.

Ancient individuals led a herd wild lifestyle. The "leader" was the largest female. Young gobies lived separately, freely frolicking and enjoying youth. Old individuals went into the forest thickets, lived separately from the main livestock. Cows with newborn turds also went deep into the forest, protecting their offspring.

Social structure and reproduction

Mating of wild animals took place in the first month of autumn. During this period, fierce fights began between males, which usually ended in the death of one or both opponents. The females belonged to the strongest representatives of the herd. There are numerous cases of mating wild aurochs and domestic cows. As a result, unviable hybrid offspring were born with poor he alth, which soon died.

The calving time came at the end of spring. Pregnant cows, feeling the speed of childbirth, went into the forest, retired to the thicket. Here calves were born, with which the mother remained in the thickets for at least 20 days. If the birth occurred at a later date (September), the calves born in autumn did not survive, they died by winter.

What are the natural enemies of the animal

Bulls had a powerful and well-developed physique. This served as a frightening signal for most animals in the wild. Researchers note that wolves could occasionally attack tours. But man has become the main enemy of the species. The constant hunting of wild bulls stretched for hundreds of years. The killed tour became excellent prey. Carcass meat was food for a huge number of people.

In historical books, annals recorded many cases of successful bull hunting. People massively exterminated aurochs to replenish stocks of meat and fur.

Population and species status

Tours are an extinct (extinct) species. An active decrease in the population and mass death was recorded in the 14-16 centuries. People of that time tried to save the species: they treated, guarded, fed and brought hay to the forest in winter. But all efforts were in vain. The population declined and eventually disappeared.

Several events contributed to the extinction of the species:

1. The rapid progress and rapid development of the woodworking industry has led to intensive deforestation in Europe.
2. The consequence of active hunting.
3. Man began to interfere with natural phenomena.
4. Changing the conditions of existence. The last individuals died from the disease. The immune system was unable to adapt to the new climatic conditions.

The last unique copy was lost in the 16th century. Today, the descendants of these ancient individuals live: Indian, African bulls and other representatives of cattle.Animals live on most continents. In 1994, it was established that modern cows are not descendants of aurochs. Scientists have proven that the development and domestication of these animals has a different lineage.

Domestication tour

Only some descendants of the aurochs were domesticated. In Spain and other Latin American countries, fighting bulls are raised. It is believed that their purposeful breeding began in the 16th and 17th century in Valladolid. Fighting bulls are used to participate in bullfighting. Such individuals outwardly resemble tours, but their body sizes are much smaller (weight - up to 0.5 tons, height - no more than 1.5 meters).

Description of the closest relatives of the ancient bull:

Descendants	Characteristics
Wild bull	This is a collective name for non-domesticated species from the subfamily bulls.Known subspecies are Indian zebu, watussi. Separation from relatives occurred about 300,000 years ago.
Fighting bull	. They have a phenotype similar to that of the aurochs. Coat color - black, dark brown. They take part in bullfighting from the age of 4. This is a kind of "reduced copy" of the ancient tour.

Attempts to recreate the view

The idea of "resurrecting" an extinct population by artificial selection became popular in the 19th century. In 1920, in Germany, the brothers Heinz and Hecky carried out a similar work. The result was the breeding of "Heck Bulls". Individuals did not become true tours, but received the maximum similarity in coat color and horn shape.

Similar experiments are being carried out today. The work is being done in the Netherlands, where scientists from the Taurus Foundation want to get an animal that looks as similar to the tour as possible by backcrossing primitive breeds.In Poland, they plan to recreate an individual from DNA collected from found bones. But the work has not been successful so far. None of the scientists managed to reproduce the wild bull.

Wild bull tour - an extinct animal. The extinction of the population occurred in the 16th century, the death of the last representative of the species falls on 1627. Ancient animals were distinguished by their huge body sizes: the weight of an adult individual reached a ton, the height at the withers was 2 meters. With such a large-scale configuration, the tours were completely herbivores. They ate greens and shoots, lived in a herd under the command of a female.

The extinction was due to human activities and genetic diseases of the species. Attempts to "resurrect" the population are not successful. The closest relatives are Indian bulls and African Watussi.

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