The Aurochs - English edition

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

Ronald Goderie Wouter Helmer Henri Kerkdijk-Otten Staffan Widstrand

the

AUROCHS born to be wild

THE AUROCHS BORN TO BE WILD THE COMEBACK OF A EUROPEAN ICON AUTHORS Ronald Goderie, Wouter Helmer, Henri Kerkdijk-Otten, Staffan Widstrand MAIN PHOTOGRAPHER Staffan Widstrand/Rewilding Europe and Wild Wonders of Europe: Cover, opening papers, 6–7, 8–9, 10–11, 12–13, 16–17, 18 top, 18 bottom, 19, 21, 24–25, 26, 29, 33, 40, 44–45, 47, 48–49, 50 top and bottom, 51 middle, 54–55, 61, 62 top and bottom, 63, 64, 65, 67, 68–69, 70, 75, 80, 81, 85, 104–105, 106–107, 111, 112 bottom, 113 top, 115, 116–117, 119, 120, 121, 122–123, 126, 130–131, 132 top and middle, 133 top, 134, 135, 138–139, 141, 142–143, 146, 147, 153, 158–159, end papers.

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

OTHER PHOTOS Achensee Tourismus: 112; Bridgeman Art: 76–77; Chen Wei Seng: 108–109; Clive Mason/Getty Images: 90-91, Coplandj/Dreamstime.com: 93; Enrique Ramón Oliver: 110; Erlend Haarberg/Wild Wonders of Europe: 51 top; Florian Möllers/Wild Wonders of Europe and Rewilding Europe: 15, 145, 150–151; Grzegorz Lesniewski/ Rewilding Europe: 50 middle, 51 bottom; Javier Trueba/Msf/Science Photo Library: 34–35; Jean-Pol Grandmont: 102 bottom right; Jesse Beals/Icon SMI/Corbis: 57; John McNamara/World Museum of Man – www.WorldMuseumofMan.org: 127; Juan Carlos Muñoz/Rewilding Europe: 62, 86–87, 124–125, 133 middle, 154–155; Lascaux/Vache à la collerette/N. Aujoulat © MCC/CNP: 78–79, 96–97; Marcel van den Bergh: 66; Marcel van den Bergh/Taurus Foundation: 132 bottom; Mark Hamblin/Wild Wonders of Europe: 52–53; Markus Varesvuo/Wild Wonders of Europe: 18 middle; Morton and Eden auction 51, lot 126: 94 bottom; Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Bruxelles: 102 bottom left; Neil Gossage/Bounce Time: 95, Niall Benvie/ Wild Wonders of Europe: 17 bottom, 27 top, 28, 71; Pedro Armestre: 103; Rieger Bertrand/Getty Images: 46; Ronand Goderie/Taurus Foundation: 133 bottom, 136; Sebastià Giralt: 94 top; Wikimedia Commons based on a Greek vase Tarquinia Museum Italy: 5; ‘Bestiaire Latin’: 58; Swiss Federal Department of Finance FDF/Federal Mint Swissmint: 111 bottom; The Trustees of the British Museum: 59, 98, 100–101; Txemanet/Dreamstime.com: 99; Vincent Munier/Wild Wonders of Europe: 30–31, 38–39

Part of the royalties of this book go to the Tauros Programme.

This book is published with support from the following partners:

The following wildlife pictures were taken in some kind of controlled conditions: 45 bottom, 48–49, 50 top, 51 middle, 62 bottom.

ILLUSTRATIONS Daniel Foidl: 83 top, 128; Derek Lucas: 36; Dick Rietveld: 82; Esther Linnartz/FREE Nature: 22; Gregor Frisch: 84; Heinrich Harder/Superstock: 37; Tom Hammond: 72–73, 83 bottom left and right; Jeroen Helmer/ARK Nature: 20, 23, 27 bottom, 41, 88–89, 148, 152; Mauricio Antón: 42–43; Roel Venderbosch: 149 EDITOR Staffan Widstrand GRAPHIC DESIGN Kristjan Jung

Captions (page 5–13):

Rewilding Europe Toernooiveld 1 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands T +31 (0)6 30 54 33 87 E info@rewildingeurope.com I www.rewildingeurope.com

p 5: Princess Europa and Zeus in the form of a bull, Greek stamnos vase, from Tarquinia in Italy, 2,500 years ago. p 6–7: The Limia is a cattle breed from Galícia, Spain, and is part of the Tauros Programme in The Netherlands.

p 8–9: Dehesa oak savannah woodland in the Campanarios de Azaba reserve in the Salamanca district of Spain.

The dehesas in Salamanca and Extremadura are some of the largest remaining grazing and browsing landscapes in Europe today. p 10–11: Two bulls locked in a classic head-to-head wrestling pose in order to determine their place in the hierarchy. p 12–13: An aerial view of the mosaic savannah in the Letea reserve in the Danube delta, Romania. This may be Europe’s best remaining example of a mosaic landscape as the result of centuries of natural grazing behaviour by deer, wild horses and cattle.

Postbus 4103 7200 BC Zutphen, The Netherlands T +31 (0)575 54 56 88 E info@roodbont.nl I www.roodbont.nl

Stichting Taurus Postbus 1117 6501 BC Nijmegen, The Netherlands T +31 (0)24 324 38 57 E info@stichtingtaurus.nl I www.stichtingtaurus.nl

ARK Nature E info@ark.eu I www.ark.eu

© 2013 all images: the respective photographers © 2013 all texts: the authors © 2013 Roodbont Publishers B.V. No part of this publication may be duplicated, photocopied, reprinted or reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the publisher.

The authors and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book. However, we assume no liability for damage of any kind resulting from actions and/or decisions based on the content of this publication.

ISBN: 978-90-8740-161-0

Wild Wonders of Europe E info@wild-wonders.com I www.wild-wonders.com

Table of contents Foreword

Europe’s defining animal

1. Cowscapes

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C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d Born to be Wild

7. The rewilding of Europe

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In the mist of history it is easy to get lost

6. The Aurochs 2.0

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The beauty of the beast

5. The Bull story

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The taming of a legend

4. The animal

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Cool wildlife in a thawing continent

3. Extinct, but still kicking

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The ecological value of bullshit

2. Ice Age II

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Making Europe a wilder place

Glossary

156

Foreword Europe’s defining animal The aurochs was an extraordinary animal. Not only was it a keystone species in the natural surroundings where it lived and which it helped to

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

shape, but it also became crucially important for the history of modern mankind. The aurochs turned into man’s most valuable animal, the

ancestor of all cattle, of every domestic cow and bull in the whole world.

The taming of the aurochs lead to prosperity, the founding of

civilisations, the rise of empires, nations and religions. It meant milk to

the children, cheese and yoghurt to the people and draught power for the plough. It meant survival and population growth, wealth and capital.

Europe’s first higher civilisation, the Minoans, had a bull monster, the Minotaur, at the centre of its cult. In Greek mythology the god Zeus once took the shape of a bull, when he swam over from Crete to present day Lebanon and snatched away a beautiful Phoenician princess.

Her name was Europa.

The aurochs has always been at the very root of the whole idea of a continent called Europe. It is in fact our continent’s defining animal.

It was driven to extinction by the actions of man, but could actually also be brought back by the actions of man. We mean that this amazing animal simply deserves not just this book, but also a comeback plan.

Frans Schepers, Ronald Goderie, Managing Director, Rewilding Europe Director, Taurus Foundation

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C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d Cowscapes 12

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C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d Chapter 1 — Cowscapes

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Cowscapes The ecological value of bullshit No plant or animal can live entirely on its own. In order to understand the aurochs, we have to start with the surroundings where the animal lived

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

and which it was part of developing. The landscapes, climate, neighbours and enemies. These are all part of a pattern, a complicated and fascinating interdependent web of life called an ecosystem. The aurochs spent more than 700,000 years successfully carving out its specific niche in several European ecosystems, side by side with a number of ‘colleagues’ among the other large-sized vegetation eaters, the herbivores.

For thousands of years, millions of these wild large herbivores had an enormous impact on Europe’s ecosystems. An impact that up until

now has been clearly underestimated by generations of biologists and ecologists. Only recently have we started to better understand the massive influence these animals must once have had.

Grazing and browsing with their front end, trampling with heavy

weight and sharp hooves with the middle, relieving themselves from their rear end, and at the end of their lives dying and becoming carcasses. All vitally important features for a multitude of other species, from butterflies and microbes to fungi, birds, beetles, reptiles, plants and trees. Among the grass eaters, the aurochs, with its great eating and cellulose-processing capacity, its herd behaviour and its abilities to reproduce, was the most important keystone species. The ecological value of bullshit has defined the natural heritage in Europe for thousands of years.

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C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

Growing up together

The relation between man and the large herbi-

these two species in a new position in the human

vores runs like a common thread throughout the

minds. They were no longer seen as part of nature

history of mankind. Try imagining the agricul-

but instead as part of the cultural landscape. As

tural civilisations all over our continent without

if we had produced them ourselves. So when we

their cattle, donkeys or horses. Who would have

try to draw a mental line between man’s realm

pulled the plough? Who would have pulled

and nature’s, the horses and cattle tend to stay on

the wagon to the market? The very foundation

‘our’ side of the fence. Even today, this makes it so

for farming would have been lost and most of

difficult for many people to imagine that aurochs

Europe’s old cultural landscapes would never have

and wild horses were always a part of nature, a

come into existence. Empires would not have

crucially important one even, and that they could

been built.

become part of that nature again, even as a part of

No wonder then that, after the extinction and

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Europe’s wildest wilderness. Psychology, culture

taming of the large herbivores, we were all easily

and the way we choose to look at things often

led to believe that these animals were forever

overrules logic, knowledge and science.

disconnected from Europe’s nature. The domes-

However, in evolutionary terms, the taming of

tication of horses and cattle in particular placed

cattle is just a domestic variation on a wild theme

The Aurochs — born to be wild

Morucha Negra cow (above) in the Salamanca region in Spain. Cattle and aurochs have kept the lands open for tens of thousands of years, and with it all the biodiversity connected to these.

Like the autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) growing on cow manure in the Danube-Drava National Park, Hungary (previous page).

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d that is millions of years old. Man-made pastures are just variations of natural grasslands, the

surrounding hedges are just variations of natural thickets and the cattle themselves are just variations of the aurochs.

Most of the plant and animal species in Europe, which these days we would identify with grasslands, meadows and hedges, were of course already here long before man even appeared on the stage.

The aurochs lived here for hundreds of thousands of years. Long before any cave paintings were ever made, the imprint of the aurochs was

already immortalised through a colourful palette of thousands of plant and animal species that had developed together with it.

A stag beetle (Lucanus cervus), Europe’s largest beetle, which is dependent on oak trees.

Oaks are in their turn dependent on grazing pressure to keep competing tree species at bay.

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Abandoning the land After the ecosystems had developed harmoniously with wild herbivores for millions of years, and then for another 10,000 years together with a few domesticated versions of them, large parts of Europe’s countryside are now suddenly facing a new situation. Nearly one million hectares per year are at the moment left empty, deserted by the shepherds and subsistence farmers. Vast open landscapes, that many hundreds of years ago lost all their wild horses, ibex and aurochs, are now also losing their domesticated relatives and counterparts. This means that the driving force behind a lot of Europe's biodiversity, the variety of life, Fritillary (Melitea sp), a nectar specialist, in Velebit, Croatia.

possibly up to 50% of it, will be gone in just a few decades. Without large amounts of large herbi-

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

vores doing their job, landscapes will quickly overgrow with bush and young forest. This of course benefits another set of species, but a set that is not threatened, unlike the unique set connected to the grazed open landscape.

Moreover, and especially so in the drier and

warmer Southern Europe, the bush overgrowth of open or sparsely wooded landscapes produces an immensely increased risk for large-scale, man-made forest fires. All of a sudden, there is much more burnable material and this bush grows right under the trees. With the disap-

pearance of the large herbivores, their job as the creators of natural firebreaks has disappeared, fires become more frequent and their heat is more

Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), a carrion specialist, in Extremadura, Spain.

intense and the damage to the trees is worse.

The disappearance of these open landscapes

is a problem recognised by many conservationists, so they have tried, with the help of significant subsidies, to keep older, but no longer profitable farming methods alive, even though there is not a market for the produce. This has also been recognised by the European Union, which with many billions of euros a year tries to support this synthetic maintenance of open landscapes. So all over Europe grass is cut with machinery and then dumped in the forest, just to get the subventions. In many areas livestock is now kept only because of subventions. The intentions are good – keeping the open landscapes open – but many of the methods might not be, and some are even counter-productive,

French lavender (Lavandula stoechas), a sign of cattle grazing.

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The Aurochs — born to be wild

also against rewilding efforts.

Billions to be saved and earned This is because we collectively seem to have forgotten that nature itself has already organised the survival of all those species and the open landscapes in a much cheaper and better way. Ten thousand years of domestication has blurred our vision. Maybe, after first having had the period of pre-domestication, in which people hunted the wild animals, often to extinction, followed by the period of domestication with the present-day livestock industry as its most extreme manifestation, space could now be created also for the post-domestication, returning some space to the original native herbivores and again let them do what they always did before: graze some of the

Burnt-tip orchids (Orchis ustulata) are dependent on grazing pressure.

landscapes. Rewilding the aurochs and giving it

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

back its natural character and role would by far be the most important step in such a post-domesti­ cation. Not instead of livestock, we continue to require milk, cheese and meat, but instead of

bush overgrowth, loss of biodiversity and instead of wasteful subventions. There are billions to be saved and earned in this field.

There are about as many opinions as there

are ecologists about what Europe’s landscapes

really looked like before man and the agricultural

revolution. In particular, the relationship between forest cover and open lands. Some believe that

it was all a ‘forest where the squirrel could jump from tree to tree from the Atlantic to the Urals and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean’.

Others believe there must have also been huge

Red legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), a bird living in open, dry land.

areas of grasslands, vast steppes, mixed mosaic

savannah landscapes and open, grazed savannah woodlands. Many of these discussions could be solved by thinking less in fixed generalisations and instead realising that things have changed constantly over time and space.

‘More than almost anything else the aurochs is the true European icon.’

Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia), connected to pastureland.

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W i gr tho az ut in g

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

Rejuvenating closed canopy forest

Wi t h gr

azin g

FOREST LIFE-CYCLE ON SANDY SOILS

d an re fi e , m as o r is e t d S

Closed canopy forest

Forested and open landscapes

Taking into account the huge diversity of the

Clearings caused by storms, fires, disease or ice

European landscapes (altitudes, soils, climate,

eventually overgrow again. The rate at which

minerals, bedrock, volume of rainfall, hours of

this happens strongly depends on the presence

sunshine per year, etc.) and given the amazing

of herbivores. If these are absent or only there

variety of species here, we can safely assume that

in low numbers then such open spaces will be

the forests and the open landscapes have always

filled with young trees again within a few years.

come in pairs. Forest growth in the one direction

If larger numbers of herbivores are present that

and the animals eating vegetation, also called

process can take between decades and centuries.

herbivory, combined with other natural factors

Long enough to always offer a suitable habitat in

like storms, fires, insect infestations, etc. in the

the larger landscape for the thousands of species

other. They are opposite forces, balancing each

that depend on access to the open sky, sunlight

other over time and place, a dynamic balance that

and relative warmth. Finally, maximum natural

looks slightly different everywhere.

densities of herbivores can locally even take

On steep mountain slopes or in the northern

themselves, by debarking trees and eating all of

upper hand, but also here storms, fires, bark beetle

the young tree shoots that spring up. Something

attacks, ice, avalanches and landslides will create

that creates open mosaic forests with large

open spaces, which in summer can be used by large

amounts of dead wood, perfect for a high forest

herbivores. At the other end of the spectrum are

biodiversity.

You could say that, where natural processes

Europe, with so little rain that herbivores can easily

open up the forest, the herbivores will ensure that

dominate, even over long periods of time, espe-

there are always open areas somewhere. Because

cially if helped by natural fires on a regular basis.

of the way aurochs and their descendants eat, they

In many other areas, the vigour and the growth power of the forest usually dominates.

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down forest cover and open up the landscape

taiga forests, forest and tree cover often has the

the steppe regions of Southern and South-Eastern

The Aurochs — born to be wild

The life-cycle of a forest is longer than most might think.

What many often call ‘forest’ is just one of the stages in this cycle.

In natural landscapes the regular open stages with grazing animals are just as much part of a ‘forest’.

played and still play an incredibly important role in this process.

The aurochs and its descendants, the cattle, are entirely designed for eating grass and digesting the cellulose in it. While at the same time doing so produces open landscapes and rich biodiversity.

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Muskox Roe deer

Wild ass

Fallow deer Wild reindeer

Wild horse

Red deer

Chamois

Mouflon

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

Water buffalo

Ibex

Elk

Aurochs

European bison

Wild boar

BROWSERS

INTERMEDIATE FEEDERS

Saiga antelope GRAZERS

A bulk eating trailblazer

Typical for cattle is that it does not graze with

other herbivores can easily find the food they need.

its teeth, like horses, or deer do, but that it

This process, called facilitation, creates a mosaic

instead pulls the grass, leaves or herbs with its

of vegetation, partly medium long, that is grazed

tongue. Rather than being a highly selective food

by cattle, and partly much shorter, which is grazed

specialist that takes only the short grass or just

by horses and deer and then further cropped by

nibbles the tops of shrubs, the cattle are eaters

rabbits, hares and other smaller herbivores. All of

of bulk food. It simply eats the lot, but most of it,

it mixed with flowering fields, emerging thickets,

over 80%, is grass. If needed, cattle have shown to

single trees, forest edges and mature forest. Voila,

be quite flexible and could survive on a diet with

there is the palette of vegetation types that are

far less grass, but grass is what they are built for.

prime habitats for Europe’s wealth of many thou-

Cattle are nature’s grass processing machines.

sands of species of plants, birds, small mammals,

They do not graze for long time in one place but

fungi, reptiles, butterflies and other insects.

tend to move around widely over the space. By

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Whereas for horses their manure also plays an

doing so, cattle contribute, more than any other

important role in defining their territories, this is

European herbivore, to keeping landscapes open.

much less the case for cattle. They just drop their load

Cattle are trailblazers for a number of other

as they go along, even in the water, when they take

herbivores, which have difficulties in digesting long

a bath or go to drink. This widespread fertilising is

grass. Once cattle have opened up the vegetation,

another crucially important factor in the ecosystem.

The Aurochs — born to be wild

This is a full set of the large European herbivores that are needed to keep Europe’s ancient open landscapes alive and well. To the left you see the specialists in browsing bushes and trees, while moving to the right the animals increasingly become grazing specialists.

The other one kicks the dust Not only the cattle’s food choice, but also their

seasons. The larger the area, the greater their

behaviour has a major impact on the natural

effect is on differentiating the landscape.

landscapes. Because of their natural enemies, they

remain in large herds, creating clear, beaten tracks

for example, deer or horses. Cattle are not flight

through the landscape; well trodden routes, which

animals designed to only run away from the

in terms of soil structure, soil fauna and vegeta-

threat, instead they can choose to stay together

tion are quite different from the grazing grounds.

and if needed take the fight head on. The combi-

Kicking dust (next spread) is one of the ways for the bulls to impress each other.

Finally, the bulls establish their position

nation of horns, muscle mass and living in a tight

within the hierarchy in a number of different

herd make these animals difficult prey, even for

ways. One is by head-to-head showdowns, but

bears or wolves. Standing in a circle, with the

even more commonly through impressing each

calves in the middle and the horns outward, they

other by kicking up dust and sand in front of the

form a pretty efficient defence.

opponent, as well as rolling themselves in this

This type of herd behaviour also has major

dust. This creates something called ‘bull pits’,

implications for their land use. The animals

often several per hectare, that are small,

are not evenly distributed over the landscape,

bald/grassless spots in the vegetation, but big

but move around in large groups together.

enough for the needs of pioneer plants and

Concentrated in one place, and virtually absent

animals. An ideal habitat for sand bees, wasps and

from the rest of the area. This results in a tempo-

beetles to reproduce in and lizards, snakes and

rary and locally high grazing pressure, which

tortoises to find suitable places to have their eggs

moves through the area, depending on the

hatched by the sun’s heat.

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Herds of aurochs (below) had a great impact on the vegetation, and in turn on other wildlife as well.

When moving from one area to another, they

have a different defence strategy compared to,

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Moving with the herds

Food, water and safety are not always available

mountains, where grass, rich in protein, was

in the same place. Under natural conditions this

more available than in the hot lowlands, while

forces animals to migrate elsewhere. Such wildlife

snow depth and climate exposure would have

migrations are well known in other continents,

forced them down again for the winter. On the dry

but in Europe, domestication, herding, farming

Spanish plateaus or in some steppe areas in the

and fencing has caused this natural migratory

Balkans, a similar movement took place between

behaviour to disappear. However, all across

the lusher river valleys in summer and the plains

Europe, from Southern Spain to Scandinavia

in winter, since the latter could not offer enough

and from Ireland to the Balkans, herdsmen have

water for survival in summer.

moved their herds according to the seasons and

species of plants and insects to migrate through

days, this is a folkloristic event at best in most

the European landscapes. Some seeds got widely

areas, but in some areas this seasonal migration

dispersed via cattle fur, other seeds by passing

is still a living part of animal husbandry. Often

through the cattle’s digestive system all the way to

these movements followed the pattern of summer

the end product, which in itself is highly appreci-

grazing in the high mountain pastures and winter

ated by many insects.

grazing in the river valleys. This pattern is most

Predators – early man among them – followed

probably not invented by man, but could rather be

the herds, while scavengers of all kinds benefitted

a remnant of wild, natural migration routes.

from their victims. The return of wild cattle to

Under natural conditions, the aurochs

the European landscapes is therefore one of the

would have withdrawn in summer to the cool

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Migrating cattle also helped hundreds of

the best grazing opportunities for centuries. These

The Aurochs — born to be wild

ultimate goals of rewilding.

The Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is one of the largest and most specialised among these (above).

Large herbivores provide a supply of carrion for the many hundreds of species that depend on that food source, from beetles and butterflies to fungi, mammals and birds (next page).

Death, a vital part of life Aurochs were immense animals, the adult bulls, weighing in at approx. 1,000 kilos, were even larger than the bison. This also means that no other European mammal through its death can leave more food behind for scavengers than wild cattle do. Moreover, the fact that these animals live in herds and in relatively open terrain greatly increases the chances of success for the scavengers to find their carcasses.

The death of a cow is the basis for survival of hundreds of other species. From the smallest microbes to the large black vulture and from wolves, foxes, jackals and ravens into an array of carrion beetles, flies, butterflies, microbes and fungi. Yet other species use skin or hair for nesting

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

purposes or take advantage of the local accumula-

‘After the mammoths and wooly rhinos had gone extinct, the aurochs was the largest land mammal in Europe.’

tion of calcium or lime from the dissolving bones.

The Mediterranean banded centipede (above) or scolopender (Scolopendra cingulata) also likes carrion.

Not the carrion itself, but it eats the various other ‘creepy-crawlies’ that come along for the party.

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Natural grazing or livestock?

Well, since the role of cattle and other herbivores

that even thorny saplings will not survive, while

is so vitally important to the ecosystems, couldn’t

forests stay untouched due to the absence of

this role just be filled by domestic livestock? In

animals in the winter.

a way, yes it can, but only to a certain extent.

Domestic herbivores, which are mostly so-called

3. High densities of livestock in summer with

seasonal grazers, are certainly better than none at

seasonal grazing leads to overfertilising and over-

all, but natural grazing by wild natural grazers is

trampling of soils and vegetation.

far better for nature in almost every aspect. Here are ten reasons why:

4. Natural grazing leads to many herbs, like thistles and burdock, not being eaten in summer time.

1. Natural grazing means that animals are

In autumn their seeds get attached to animal fur

outdoors on the land, all year round. In natural

or serve as a food source for (migrating) birds.

grazing, the number of animals is limited by

Overgrazing with domestic livestock often hinder

the amount of food during winter. In short,

these herbs to develop.

this means that there is an abundance of food 5. Natural grazing leads to great interaction

production. In seasonal grazing, the numbers are

between different species of grazers like deer,

instead determined by the farmer and usually

cattle, horses and bison. Competition and facili-

much higher (up to 30 times) compared to natural

tation between species strongly leads to a greater

grazing. This causes higher grazing pressure

variety of life. With livestock grazing often only

during summer, with less flowering and an

one species of herbivore is used. Also predation

absence of the explosion of life.

from carnivores leads to a varied grazing pressure

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

during summer with massive flowering and seed

and greater biodiversity.

2. In natural grazing animals need to search for alternative food sources during winter; twigs,

6. Social interactions within the wild herds create

stems and bark. This is the period in which they

many habitat variations at a micro scale. Actions

have the strongest influence on trees and wooded

like calving/foaling, fighting stallions/bulls, dung-

vegetation, creating a mosaic pattern of open

hills, sand baths, paths, rut and so on. In domestic

grasslands, thickets and woods. Especially the

livestock farming there is a lack of this social life

transition zones between these are very rich in

and usually the groups of animals consist of only

life and diversity. Seasonal grazing instead creates

one sex and one age group.

sharp boundaries between open, overgrazed

meadows and forests with untouched woody

7. Seasonal grazing lacks the build-up of knowl-

plants. Summer pastures are grazed so intensively

edge in a herd about water and food sources, which is passed on between generations during natural grazing. Seasonal herds are instead renewed yearly.

Black-veined white butterfly (Aporia crataegi) on red clover (Trifolium pratense), Kaunergrat Naturpark, Tyrol, Austria.

28

The Aurochs — born to be wild

Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) are slowly coming back to Europe, after having been completely exterminated in this region by man after the last Ice Age (next spread).

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

Ancient grazing landscape in the Velebit mountains, Croatia.

This area is now almost completely abandoned and is set to be one of the breeding areas for the Tauros Programme.

8. From a tourism point of view it is far more

10. To prevent economic loss due to animal

attractive to see wild grazers with all their social

illness, farmers are likely to use many types of

behaviour. Take for example the red deer rut,

medication. This helps also the weaker animals

which is a world-class spectacle to watch. Similar

to survive. Anti-worm medicines, antibiotics

behaviour can be seen within rewilded herds

and hormones leak into the ecosystem, affecting

of cattle. The natural landscapes with natural

insects, frogs and fish and in their turn the birds

grazing are blooming landscapes, more varied,

that eat them. In natural grazing only the fittest

with new surprises around every corner.

survive to mate and have calves.

9. Within natural social herds, the newborn are

Natural grazing is very different compared to

raised by their mothers and fostered within the

seasonal grazing and it has a very different

rest of their herd and the animals do not have

impact on its surroundings. For nature reserves,

any affections towards humans. The animals go

rewilding areas and nature-restoration projects,

their own way and do their own thing without

domestic livestock grazing therefore is a very poor

paying much attention towards people. Domestic

and synthetic solution. Heavily subsidised, exten-

livestock, instead has a tight relation with humans

sive livestock grazing might be able to show us

from birth. Separated from their mothers at a

something about our past, like in a museum, but

very young age. Groups of one year-olds are kept

economically it holds little future and ecologically

together, lacking adult animals to correct their

it is a very poor alternative to natural grazing. It

juvenile behaviour. Domestic bulls might even see

just can’t be compared to the explosion of life that

the farmer as a competitor.

comes with natural grazing.

Chapter 1 — Cowscapes

29

The Comeback of a European Icon

C o pr py ot ri ec gh te t d

The aurochs. Extinct. Everyone of us has heard its name, but very few of us know anything about it. Still, it was the most important animal throughout the history of mankind. Without it, nothing in our society would have been the same. However, one could also say that the aurochs is still here. Yes, its wild form went extinct back in 1627, but its genes are still very much alive. Could we bring it back somehow?

The aurochs was also one of the most important animals for the European ecosystems, a ‘keystone species’, as ecologists say. Now, an initiative called the Tauros Programme is well underway, with the aim to breed back an animal that will be as close as technically possible to the original aurochs, by using some of the most ancient cattle breeds that are still around. And then letting it go wild.

The authors all have decades of experience working with Europe’s natural heritage.

Here they tell us the full story about the legendary aurochs, lavishly illustrated with striking photos by several of Europe’s best nature photographers, and evocative drawings by some of Europe’s most gifted wildlife artists.

Published with the support from:

ISBN 978-90-8740-161-0

9 789087 401610