[rupicola]

Originally Posted by david kelly

If you are interested this is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heck_cattle
There's more info there.

"Heck Cattle (a breed of Bos taurus or Bos primigenius taurus), also called reconstructed aurochs, is a hardy breed of cattle often referred to by its promoters by the name of Aurochs. The aurochs is an extinct recent ancestor to modern cattle.

Heck cattle were developed in the early 20th century by the Heck brothers in Germany in an attempt to breed back modern cattle to their presumed ancestral form, the Aurochs (Bos primigenius). Heinz Heck working at the Hellabrunn Zoological Gardens in Munich began creating the Heck breed about 1920. Lutz Heck, director of the Berlin Zoological Gardens, began extensive breeding programs supported by the Nazis during World War II to bring back the Aurochs. The reconstructed aurochs fit into the Nazi propaganda drive to create an idyllic history of the Aryan nation.

Heinz Heck crossed Hungarian Steppe, Scottish Highland, Brown, Murnau-Werdenfels, Angeln, German Friesian, Podolic and Corsican breeds. In Berlin, Lutz Heck crossed Spanish and French fighting cattle with other breeds. The resulting animals’ configurations were largely similar. The Berlin breed later was lost because of the hardships in the times after World War II and modern Heck cattle are descended only from the Hellabrunn breed. At the end of the 20th century, other so-called primitive breeds were crossbred with Heck cattle to come closer to the aim of creating a cattle breed that resembles the extinct aurochs in external appearance."

David

Hi David,

very interesting reading!!!
Thank you for this info.

You happen to know much better what's happening in
my 'backyard' than I do! :) :) :)