All that is old (and older) is new again

April 22, 2009February 15, 2021

The vision is a creature of which even Julius Caesar was in awe: Bos primigenius, the aurochs, fearsome wild ancestor of all today’s domestic cattle, immortalized tens of thousands of years ago in ochre and charcoal in the Great Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux in southwest France.

But this herd of 13 bulls, cows and calves known as Heck cattle is the product of Nazi genetic engineering, an attempt to reintroduce the extinct aurochs, the last of which died of old age in a Polish forest nearly four centuries ago

So we’re sending the products of a Nazi attempt at Jurassic Park to the UK. Rewilding, are we?

(Edit, 4/22/2009 2104:“The Times added that Gow, who is also heading the effort to reintroduce the beaver into the British wild, intends to breed calmer examples of the cattle, which he eventually hopes to offer “as grazing animals for nature reserves and ‘rewilding’ projects.”” Can I call ’em or what?)

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