Reviving the 1.500kg extinct bison, 400 years old

Scientists are trying to revive the European bison (Auroch), an animal that has been extinct, and bring it back to nature.

According to MNN, the European bison used to live in large areas in Europe, Asia and North Africa. They are one of the most commonly described species in the Paleolithic cave paintings in Europe and Mesopotamia, weighing about 1,500kg and the characteristic horns with a length of more than half a meter.

The number of these cows declined sharply in the Middle Ages due to excessive hunting and habitat loss due to the expansion of agricultural land. The last female bison died in a forest in Poland in 1627.

Aurochs bison is depicted in a cave painting in Lascaux, France.(Photo: Creative Commons).

Scientists hope to revive this bison based on the genetic code stored in cattle. This project is led by the Dutch organization Stichting Taurus, and is part of a "re-naturalization" program aimed at restoring the vast wilderness of Europe back to pre-operative status. human movement

"The European bison was part of an ecosystem," said Henri Kerkdijk, project manager, interviewing Time magazine in 2010. "If you want to recreate the flora of the birth system." you have to recreate the whole animal system too ".

Unlike other extinct animal revival efforts, this project does not use genetic engineering in a laboratory. Instead, researchers are using selective breeding and breeding (a process known as "breed regeneration" ) to create a new animal population that closely resembles the European bison.

The complete set of genes from a 6,700-year-old skeleton of an European bison was discovered in a British cave in 2014 used as a control.

A revision of Auroch bison based on the skeleton found in Germany.Note that the characteristic white stripes along the spine are a characteristic of this species.(Photo: Jaap Rouwenhorst / Creative Commons).

In an interview with The Washington Post, Ronald Goderie, an ecologist and Taurus project leader, said it would take another 10 years for the group to succeed in creating a bison. modern Europe.

"The second generation observed is quite similar in color to the European bison," he said. "Bulls are black and have an eel stripe [along the spine]. They have longer legs. The size and shape of the horns are somewhat more complicated. I can say that with some. In case, we can see that an individual has up to 75 percent of the necessary characteristics ".

Earlier this year, a project called Quagga announced that after 30 years of selective hybridization, they had successfully created a live version of the extinct quagga zebra.

"The project is selecting for the 4th and 5th generations, and the following generations have started to look like zebra quaggas," wrote Bryan Nelson.

If the project succeeds in the coming years, Stichting Taurus plans to work with non-profit organization Rewilding Europe to release European herds of bison into conservation areas.

The cows from the Taurus project carry the color of the extinct bison auroch.(Photo: Project Taurus).

By 2022, Rewilding Europe hopes to convert about 2.4 million hectares of land in 10 areas back to its natural state. In an interview with Modern Famer, Goderie said that at the time, his group intended to keep the European bison in the wild.

"European bison will only be used to live in the wild ecosystems in Europe , " he said. "It doesn't make sense if we tame them again."