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Heck cattle are a hardy breed of domestic cattle. These cattle are the result of an attempt to breed back the extinct aurochs from modern aurochs-derived cattle in the 1920s and 1930s. Controversy revolves around methodology and success of the programme. There are considerable differences between Heck cattle and the aurochs. Furthermore, there are other cattle breeds which resemble their wild ancestors at least as much as Heck cattle.〔van Vuure, Cis (2005) ''Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox''. ISBN 954-642-235-5〕 ==Development== Heck cattle originated in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s in an attempt to breed back domestic cattle to their ancestral form: the aurochs (''Bos primigenius primigenius'').〔van Vuure, Cis (2005) Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox. ISBN 954-642-235-5〕 In the first years of the Weimar Republic, the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck independently started their extensive breeding-back programmes. Their motivation behind that was to rescue the aurochs from oblivion because it was constantly confused with the wisent, the other large bovine of Holocene Europe. The Heck brothers believed that creating a look-alike and showing both species next to each other will help to show the difference between the two species to a broader public. Apart from that, they believed they were able to reconstruct the species and therefore to correct the mistake man did when killing the species off.〔 Heinz was the director of the Hellabrunn Zoological Gardens in Munich and Lutz of the Berlin Zoological Gardens. Only eleven years after they started their breeding experiments, just as the Weimar Republic was drawing to a close, they each announced their success.〔Heinz Heck (1934): ″Der Ur.″ ''Das Tier und Wir, Monatszeitschrift für alle Tierfreunde.'' Special edition (Sondernummer), March 1934. Quoted in: T. van Vuure, (″History, Morphology and Ecology of the Aurochs (''Bos primigenius''),″ ) 2002.〕〔Lutz Heck (1934): ″Über die Neuzüchtung des Ur oder Auerochs.″ ''Berichte der Internationalen Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung des Wisents'' 3(4):225–294, 1934. Quoted in: T. van Vuure, (″History, Morphology and Ecology of the Aurochs (''Bos primigenius''),″ ) 2002.〕 Both brothers used a different selection of cattle breeds in their breeding-back attempts. For example, Lutz Heck (Berlin) used Spanish fighting bulls, while Heinz (Munich) did not.〔 The Berlin breed seemingly did not survive the Second World War, so all modern Heck cattle go back to the experiments of Heinz Heck in Munich.〔 Those ancestral breeds include: * Hungarian Grey Cattle * Highland Cattle * Corsican Cattle * Murnau-Werdenfels Cattle * Angeln cattle * Black-pied lowland cattle * White Park Cattle * Brown Swiss In 1932, the first bull that Heinz Heck believed to resemble the aurochs, named ″Glachl″, was born. It was a 75% Corsican and 25% (Gray cattle × Lowland × Highland × Angeln) cross individual. This bull and its father subsequently were bred into further breeds to increase weight.〔 As a consequence, most modern Heck cattle go back to Central European milk- and meat cattle that were supplemented by cattle from other regions.〔Julia Poettinger: ''Vergleichende Studie zur Haltung und zum Verhalten des Wisents und des Heckrinds''. 2011.〕 Advocates of Heck cattle often claim that Heinz′ and Lutz′ breeding results looked largely identically ″proving the success″ of their experiment. However, Berlin and Munich Heck cattle did not look very similar.〔 In the German Zoo Duisburg, one Watussi cattle cow, which is a half-zebuine breed, was crossed with a Heck bull. Some modern Heck cattle, mainly those displaying large and thick horns, descend from this crossbred offspring. In some locations, primitive Southern European cattle, such as Sayaguesa Cattle and Chianina, have been crossed into Heck cattle herds aiming to approach the aurochs in phenotypical characters. This cross-breed is called ''Taurus cattle'', which is not to be confused with the ''TaurOs Project'' (see below).〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Heck cattle」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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