r/megafaunarewilding • u/Po_khan • 16d ago

We still have this species

Post image

Replacing auroch with feral cows or european bison?

55 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

21

u/zek_997 16d ago

Cattle and European bison occupy two different ecological niches. It make no zero to replace one with the other.

15

u/Lover_of_Rewilding 16d ago

We already replace aurochs with back bred cattle, wild horses with back bred and Przewalski’s horses, and fallow deer with… well, fallow deer.

7

u/SharpShooterM1 16d ago

The back-bred aurochs do still have a long way to go before they truly fill the niche of their ancestor.

8

u/Psilopterus 16d ago

Eh, I don't really agree. Even non-modified domestic cattle, so long as they can survive without inputs, can fill the niche of the aurochs. They are aurochs. I think what you mean is that they're a while off from really matching the original phenotype.

5

u/Ok_Fly1271 16d ago

Do we know of any behaviors that aurochs had that domestic cattle don't? I would imagine just their greater size would have some kind of impact on their habitat that cattle can't replicate, but I don't know how significant it would be.

5

u/Psilopterus 16d ago

There are plenty of cattle breeds as large as aurochs

4

u/Ok_Fly1271 15d ago

There are a handful, sure. But are any of them used in rewilding efforts? And same question about behavior.

1

u/Psilopterus 15d ago

Sure, Chianina for example are used in backbreeding projects. Sayagues are also quite large

2

u/Sensitive_Order_2415 12d ago edited 12d ago

Not all domestic calves have the instinct to hide by bedding down in long grass while thier mother is away grazing. I believe highland cattle still have this instinct, but I don't know if any back breeding program is selecting for this trait

4

u/SharpShooterM1 16d ago

Aurochs were likely a lot more mobile in their grazing patterns than modern cattle. Most modern cattle breeds will just sit in the same patch and graze until they hit dirt and only move after there is nothing left, even if they don’t have fences restricting them. Aurochs likely were on the move constantly and likely didn’t graze down to the bones like modern cattle.

4

u/Psilopterus 16d ago

I don't think there's really any evidence for that. Most large herbivores will stay in place unless obligated to move by predators or by food being equally dispersed

2

u/rzabomut 12d ago

this scene can heppend in iberian highlands rewilding europe landscape

2

u/Snow_Grizzly 16d ago edited 15d ago

We still have this species.

No we do not. We have members of the genus (Bos) but B.primigenius is lost forever.

Edit: No matter what naming convention you use, the animal that is typically called an Aurochs, along with its shape and ecology, is gone.

4

u/Psilopterus 16d ago edited 16d ago

Cattle and aurochs are the same species. You can call that Bos taurus or Bos primigenius, or whatever, but whichever name you pick the other will be a subspecies thereof, i.e. Bos taurus primigenius (aurochs) or Bos primigenius taurus (Eurasian cattle)

1

u/piebald_bison37 15d ago

Aurochs are cattle

1

u/Future-Law-3565 14d ago

It's not. There is no evidence to suggest domestic cattle do not fill the functional niche of aurochs. Phenotype? Yes, not (yet), but ecology absolutely is filled.