Why the Caucasian tour is dying out. Description and distribution of the extinct animal tour. Worthy of Caesar's Attention

What an animal tour looked like can currently only be found out by looking at pictures and reconstructions of its appearance. Now representatives of this species artiodactyl mammals are considered extinct. Their closest relative is the Watussi bull, common in the expanses of Africa, and now retains the features inherent in their wild, disappeared relatives. The last wild individuals were exterminated about 300 years ago.

Tours are now considered extinct.

Habitat

Thanks to genetic research available bone remains of animals, it was revealed where the extinct tour lived. The cows that appeared on the territory of Eurasia most likely descended from these massive bulls. Representatives of gray Ukrainian cattle especially clearly show the features of a long-gone animal. However the last wild aurochs was destroyed in 1627. Tours in the 2nd half of the Anthropogene inhabited all the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Initially wild bulls were distributed throughout the course of the Nile River. Subsequently, they came to the territory of India, Pakistan and Africa. Much later, the tours settled in the forest-steppe zone of Europe, the Caucasus and Asia Minor. The spread of tours and their rapid migration was facilitated by mass felling trees in the 6th c. This has led to a significant limitation of suitable habitats for tours. First, the population of these animals was completely destroyed in Africa, and then in India and Asia.

The wild ancestors of the cow migrated to the banks of the Dnieper. By the 9th c. the wild bull tur met in the forest-tundra zone of Lithuania and Poland. In central Europe, the animal population survived until the 16th century. Here they are long time were under protection, but even living in the protected royal forests did not save them. In 1559, 29 representatives of these wild cow ancestors were identified near Warsaw, but after 3 years their number was only 4 individuals.

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Scientists do not know what exactly influenced the species that it became extinct almost everywhere. Although human activity may indeed have affected numbers, many other wild relatives of the domesticated cow have adapted effectively and now maintain their populations relatively large. It is possible that the extinct wild bull aurochs fell victim to its genome, which made it unadapted to changing habitats and climate shifts. There is a version that new diseases could mow down majestic creatures. This theory is not without foundation, because the last famous representative breed died precisely because of an unknown disease.

Appearance of animals (video)

Characteristic features of the tour

What a bull looks like, which disappeared from the face of the earth more than 300 years ago, was determined thanks to the remaining bone elements, as well as drawings by naturalists of those eras when unique creations still roamed the earth. The tour was one of the largest animals that lived after the completion ice age. Scientists believe that its dimensions were commensurate only with the dimensions of the living European bison.

Thanks to the remaining bone evidence of the stay of the aurochs on the ground, it was revealed that their average height at the withers reached approximately 170-180 cm. The body weight of bulls varied from 800 to 1100 kg. The body of the animal was elongated. Its length reached 3 m. ancient bull, who lived in India, was more modest in size. The muscles of the European animal were very well developed. Distinctive feature these animals had horns.

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They had the following characteristics:

• size up to 90 cm;
• up to 20 cm in diameter;
• widely spaced;
• heads growing from the sides;
• directed forward;
• slightly curved tips

Wild cows of this species were less impressive in size. The head of the animal was compact, but slightly elongated. Some researchers believe that the aurochs were distinguished by poor eyesight, but had a sensitive ear. Females were usually more modest in size than males. Among other things, gender could be easily determined by suit.

Males had a dark brown coat color with characteristic light stripes along the back. The females had reddish-brown fur. Both sexes had a small hump.

These ancestors of the modern cow had a rather tough temper. The bulls were especially dangerous during the rut. Wild bulls lived in small herds, reaching about 30 heads. The basis of the diet was herbs. AT summer time these creatures sought to eat as much nutritious vegetation as possible in order to accumulate enough fat reserves to help them survive extreme cold. In winter, ancient bulls could absorb young branches and dig out withered hay, mosses, lichens from under a layer of snow. The natural enemies of this animal were wolves. At a time when these majestic bulls, large flocks of gray predators were also present in their areas of distribution.

Gallery: tour (30 photos)

Revival attempts

AT recent times in some countries of the world, work is underway to restore long-extinct animals. Tours are no exception. The work is carried out in 2 directions. Some scientists are trying to get intact DNA. Others are trying to get a wild bull by crossing ancient domesticated cow breeds. In Holland, a special Taurus fund was even created, which is engaged in obtaining bulls that are outwardly indistinguishable from tours.

When it comes to this representative of the fauna, there is often a certain misunderstanding of the issue. The fact is that in a number of authoritative sources it is stated that the tour is an extinct animal. And here is information about its range modern habitat. But everything is easily explained when it becomes clear that the same name refers to completely different types of animals.

ancestor of pets

Sad historical fact is that the animal that the poet Vladimir Vysotsky mentioned in his early song: “Either a buffalo, or a bull, or a tour” is an animal that is really extinct. This fact has been established and documented in a number of historical sources. The last tour on Earth died in 1627. Until that moment, their small herd was kept in the royal hunting grounds near Warsaw. It was this circumstance that made it possible to determine with such accuracy the date of disappearance from the face of the earth of the relic ancestor of modern cattle. All domestic animals of this species originated precisely from this wild bull, which now does not exist in nature. But today the tour is presented only in the expositions of some zoological museums in the form of reconstructed skeletons and skulls. But even such remains give a very clear idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhow this animal looked in reality. His appearance was very impressive.

What do we know about the tour

Studying the skeletal remains and preserved graphic images, we can conclude that the tour is an animal a little less than two meters tall and weighing about eight hundred kilograms. Its habitat covered the entire middle lane continent of Eurasia from the Iberian Peninsula to Pacific Ocean. It was a powerful muscular beast with large and sharp horns, dominating other representatives of the fauna. If we exclude the person, then natural enemies he had practically none. The extinction of this species was caused both by hunting for it and by the catastrophic reduction of relict forests, which are its natural environment habitat. At present, the tour is an animal, rather, a mythological one. Its image is present both on medieval heraldry and on the arms of some modern states and autonomous territories. The image of a wild bull, or tour, is widely represented in the folklore and mythology of many peoples of Europe and Asia.

spanish bulls

In the ritual that has remained unchanged since the time, in addition to the bullfighter, the main actor is a bull. It so happened historically that of all the representatives of the large ones, it was the Spanish bull that most of all retained the features of the relic tour. Currently, even a number of biological experiments are being carried out aimed at the revival and restoration of the natural population of the tour. It is planned to apply gene technologies and clone the aurochs using the bone remains isolated from its remains. It is still premature to talk about the results of this bold project, but it cannot be ruled out that sensational news from the field of zoology awaits humanity in the near future.

mountain tour

And another horned representative of the fauna was much more fortunate. In any case, there is no direct threat of extermination for him yet. The point here is a simple coincidence of names. Just like a relic bull that disappeared from the face of the earth, in zoology a whole genus of mountain goats is called, of which there are a total of eight species. So it's a completely different tour. The animal, whose photo adorns many zoology textbooks, lives on steep, hard-to-reach mountain slopes. And, despite the poaching hunt for him, so far he is not going to die out. inhabit mountain goats in many regions of Eurasia and North Africa. They are distinguished by unpretentiousness in food and the ability to survive in the most difficult conditions. natural conditions. The ability to move with high speed no one can compare with them on an almost sheer surface.

On the slopes of the Caucasus

In the territory Russian Federation also have their authorized representatives. Widely known caucasian tour. This animal lives in a remote part of the region, mainly in the area of ​​the Russian-Georgian border, and has two varieties: West Caucasian and East Caucasian. Sometimes it is called Caucasian B last years there are alarming trends in the existence of these species. Their population has declined markedly, and this fact requires the adoption of vigorous legal measures aimed at preventing poaching extermination. However, due to the complexity of the situation in many regions of the Caucasus, in practice, to implement security environmental activities happens not so easy. It is not enough to write an endangered animal in the International Red Book, it is also necessary to ensure a real regime for its protection.

In nature, there are two subspecies of the Caucasian tour, which are often referred to as different types- Severtsov's tour, or West Caucasian (Kuban) tour, and Dagestan - East Caucasian.

They differ in the shape of the horns: in the Severtsov tour they are saber-shaped, and in the Dagestan tour the horns are massive and thick, similar to the horns of a ram. The tour belongs to the bovid family, artiodactyl order.

External signs of the Caucasian tour

The Caucasian tur is a large animal with a massive body and neck, strong legs and a developed tail of 13-17 cm. The body length is 120-180 cm, the height at the withers reaches 78-112 cm. Males weigh 65-155 kg, they are much larger than females. The color of the fur is reddish-gray, the tail, chest and Bottom part the legs are dark, the lower part of the body is whitish. The coat is dark brown in winter, with a dark "belt" on the back, on the belly of a light shade. In summer, the coat becomes grayish-brown. The beard is short, up to 70 mm, dark. The head is decorated with horns 70-100 cm long along the bend. In females, the horns are short and thin, about 20 cm.

Distribution of the Caucasian tur

Caucasian turs are endemic to the Caucasus. They are not found anywhere except the Main Caucasian Range. The Dagestan tur lives in the eastern part of the Main Caucasian Range, the western regions are inhabited by the Kuban tur.

The habitat of the Dagestan tur is located along the upper belt of the Main Caucasian Range to the east of the Terek at a height of up to 4000 meters above sea level. The main habitats are located in the upper reaches of the Samur, Avar and Andi and Koisu, on the Talib, Bogos, Nuktala ranges.

Habitats of Caucasian turs in nature

Tours prefer to feed in places where they are little disturbed. The favorite habitats of tours are the upper forest massifs at the transition points to alpine meadows.

During the year, ungulates roam within the same ridge and do not undertake long-distance movements. After wintering, in April-May, the tours descend from the alpine meadows to the sunny slopes to the forests. The first greenery appears there, and the aurochs graze in herds of up to 100 individuals. Ungulates are understood after the melting snow edge; in June-July, the bulk of animals gather in the alpine zone. In the second half of summer, when it gets hot, tours stick to areas where there are glaciers. With the onset of autumn, animals descend to the upper border of the forest, where fresh greenery is still preserved in small hollows. With the appearance of the first snow, the herds move to the wintering grounds in the Alpine zone.

Features of the behavior of the Caucasian tur

The Caucasian tur is a hardy animal adapted to harsh conditions mountains It withstands frosts, blizzards, snowfalls. In places where tours live, other ungulates are rarely found. Tours are very cautious animals. They possess sharp eyesight, subtle sense of smell and sensitive hearing. Ungulates can smell a person for several hundred meters.

In addition, the tours have developed a collective notification. There are always sentinels in the herd who inform their relatives about the approach of strangers with a snorting sound. The whole herd reacts to the signals of the sentinel tour, the animals determine the presence or absence of a threat by the behavior of the sentinel tour. Constantly one or more tours raise their heads and inspect the surroundings. A sharp whistle serves as an alarm signal. Animals, when a person appears, climb impregnable rocks.

Food of the Caucasian tour

Caucasian tours are herbivores. They feed cereal plants, eat fragrant spikelet, bluegrass, fescue. On occasion, do not refuse hellebore, anemones that are poisonous to pets. In winter, the main food is dried grass.

Ungulates replenish their meager winter diet with shoots of mountain ash, willow, aspen, maple, fir, and pine. To make up for the lack of mineral salts, tours willingly visit salt licks. To this end, they cover distances of 15-20 km. Regularly visit watering places, especially when the grass dries up.

Mating behavior

In the Caucasian tur, the fights of males are of a ritual nature. When meeting, the males freeze one against the other, then stand on their hind legs and drop down with a sharp movement, striking with their horns. The sound of the collision can be heard more than a kilometer away. The fight ends without bloodshed. Having collided with horns once again, males disperse.

The rut of the Caucasian turs lasts from the second half of November to the end of December. During this period, animals are kept in a mixed herd of up to a hundred heads. Juveniles stay away from adult males and females.

reproduction

The female bears cubs for 5.5 months. Offspring appear from late May to mid-June. Before giving birth, females go to the subalpine regions of the mountains. Gives birth to one, rarely two cubs. They immediately get to their feet. Already at the age of one month they feed on grass, but suck milk until late autumn. Sexual maturity in females occurs at 3-4 years of age, males breed later.

Most of us, looking at photographs of cave paintings, do not think about who exactly our ancestors depicted. Tigers, mammoths, bulls... Nothing interesting, somehow everything is unrealistic and the proportions are not respected...

FERIOUS GIANTS

Primitive wild bulls, which are most often called tours, were huge. In the Pleistocene era (which ended about 12,000 years ago), the height of the male reached 2 m, and the weight reached a ton. Gradually, the tours decreased in size, it is assumed that this was facilitated by the disappearance of enemies after the last ice age. As a result, their height stopped at around 180 cm, and their weight at around 800 kg.

It was from the tours that went home cattle, although given fact long time remained a hypothesis: it was questioned that the areola of the aurochs was too large, but later it was proved that the aurochs lived not only in Europe, but also in the Caucasus, North Africa and Asia Minor.

Outwardly, the tours differed from modern bulls not only in size, but also in the length of the horns, which formed the shape of a lyre and could reach a meter in length. People were afraid of these animals, because tours often attacked hunters. Males were especially ferocious, while females attacked only if a person approached the cub. Sharp horns pierced a person through and through, and after the victim fell, the tour trampled it.

The bull used his horns and during mating games, and if he did not die during this period, then he could live up to 15 years - this was exactly the life expectancy of ancient bulls.

SHOW YOUR REGISTRATION

Scientists disagree about the habitat of aurochs. Some believe that they lived in the forests, others - that the primitive bulls preferred open spaces. Most likely, the tours loved pastures, since various herbs were their main food. And only after the forced departure to the forests, the bulls began to eat the leaves of trees and shrubs, as well as acorns.

The last individuals of aurochs lived in swampy forests, since in open space they were even easier prey for hunters.

Tours lived in small groups, but there were those who preferred solitude. In winter, several groups united and formed a fairly large herd. Before calving, the females went far into the forest and waited until the calf was strong enough to go to the field.

HUNTING

Tours that lived in different regions, were very different from each other. The North African looked like the Eurasian, but their color was lighter. The Indian subspecies was smaller in size. Judging by the DNA analysis, even the tours of different parts of Europe had differences. However, this did not stop people from domesticating these animals 8,000 years ago. At first, this process had a purely ritual meaning, then the tours began to be domesticated to be used as labor force, and only some time later they began to be considered as a source of milk.

And then people. love hunting. And it was because of hunting that tours disappeared from the face of the earth. First there were no North African, then Mesopotamian ... Soon the tours remained only in Central Europe, but due to deforestation in the Middle Ages and active hunting in the 15th century, wild bulls remained only in modern territory, where they hid in hard-to-reach forests. At the end of the 16th century, the tours began to be guarded, but it was too late. By that time, they lived only near Warsaw, and their numbers were sharply reduced. And by 1620, only one female remained alive, who died seven years later of natural causes. So tours disappeared from the face of the earth.

Today, scientists do not leave attempts to revive the population of these amazing animals. They experiment with those types of modern bulls that are most reminiscent of the ancient ones (in particular, with the Spanish and Italian types), but, alas, the attempts do not lead to the desired result.

HITLER'S FAILED PLAN

By the way, the Nazis faced a similar problem at one time. In the 1930s, there was a project to restore the prehistoric landscape and its flora and fauna. Goering became the curator of the project, and the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck worked on the revival of the past species. Lutz was the director of the Berlin Zoo, and Heinz was the director of the Munich Zoo. Long before Hitler came to power, the brothers began to work on recreating the tour and the forest tarpan. It took them about 14 years to bring out new tours. To create them, they took quite aggressive Spanish bulls and bison. Both of them were carefully selected, because the new tour had to have a large body weight and long horns.

In 1932, a beast was born, which was called the "Heck bull", but he was far from the tour. Hake weighed only 600 kg, and the color was not the same. Perhaps the only thing that united hakes with tours was their aggressiveness, which was directed at absolutely everything: people, animals, trees.

For many years, the Heck bull could only be seen in the Munich and Berlin zoos. The breed's breeding program was so popular that the bred primeval bulls flourished and were used in Nazi propaganda during World War II. The Nazis dreamed of populating Belovezhskaya Pushcha with tours and hunting them for fun, but the plans could not be implemented, the Hake Breeding Center was destroyed by air strikes, and the animals that ran out were shot right on the streets, because they were very aggressive.

Worthy of Caesar's Attention

Information about the ferocious tour is found in many manuscripts. In the Notes on the Gallic War, Julius Caesar did not forget to mention the tours, writing that they are smaller in size than elephants and are relatives of bulls.

He noted that the tours run fast and it is impossible to feel safe if these bulls are nearby.

Caesar believed that they could not be tamed and that those who had collections of horns from killed aurochs were highly respected.

FROM MYTHS AND LEGENDS

If you remember the ancient myths, it becomes clear. What exactly tours were exalted by many civilizations, the bull was considered the incarnation of one or another god, references to it are found not only in the myths of the Mediterranean, but also in, including in the ancient Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The cult of the bull was very developed in Crete and in. The Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, says that the supreme deity created a bull and a man who created the world while fighting evil forces - as a result, they killed the bull. In Crete, acrobats performed tricks in the same arena with bulls, which was associated with the cult of fertility. Moreover, the Cretan monster Minotaur was half a bull. In Ancient times, Zeus was associated with a bull: suffice it to recall the myth of the abduction of the beauty of Europe by Zeus. Among the Slavs, the bull, along with the bear, was associated with the god Veles.

Tur is a bull, which today can only be found in pictures. This is an extinct primitive species of wild cattle, which is the progenitor of all our modern cows. Let's find out about it together.

According to the latest research by genetic scientists, the tour bull is the closest extinct relative of modern domestic cows. Many of the livestock species are a domesticated form of the Eurasian tur, which was completely eradicated in 1627. Today, the appearance of these animals is reminiscent of African Watussi bulls, gray Ukrainian cattle, and Indian gaur.

Watussi - modern look extinct bull

Thanks to numerous studies, today we can imagine not only what this bull looked like, but also how it lived and what it ate. Turs inhabited mainly forest-steppe zones, but in winter they went into the forest, where grass and shoots were taken out from under the snow. These large herbivores also fed on the leaves of trees and bushes. AT warm time years, the animals lived in small groups or singly. But in winter they united in large herds. Due to their large size and very large horns, the tours did not have enemies in nature, but they were destroyed by human hands.

Origin

Tours have inhabited the steppes and forest-steppes of the Eastern Hemisphere since the second half of the Anthropogene. Scientists have found images of these animals in Egyptian drawings, as well as in Ethiopia and Somalia. It is believed that initially the bulls inhabited the banks of the Nile, then came to Africa and only then to India and Pakistan. Later, tours inhabited the lands of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and North Africa. The first populations of these animals were destroyed in Africa, then they disappeared in Mesopotamia and only in Central Europe did they manage to live long enough.

Initially, the number of tours decreased due to intensive deforestation, in the XII century they migrated en masse to the banks of the Dnieper. But by the 15th century, they already lived in small groups in the tundra forests of Poland and Lithuania. here because of small numbers they were taken under protection and lived in a protected area mainly in the royal forests. However, this did not save them either. In 1599, only 29 individuals were recorded near Warsaw. After 4 years, only 4 remained.

Interesting. Until now, scientists cannot say for sure what had such a detrimental effect on the life of the aurochs, however, it is known that the last individual died in 1627 in the Yaktorov forests, not from the hand of a hunter, but from illness. There is a possibility that the animals were crippled by a too weak genetic system that could not withstand the then living conditions.

Appearance

Tur at one time was one of the largest herbivores that lived after the ice age. Today, its size can only be compared with European bison which can be seen in the photo. With a few accurate studies by scientists, today we can imagine what an extinct species of bulls looked like. So, the tour was a large, muscular animal with a height at the withers of about 170-180 centimeters. The body weight of adult bulls was about 800 kilograms.

One of the decorations of this herbivore was sharp long horns. Their distinctive feature is their inward orientation and wide scope, as in the photo. In males, the horns reached 100 centimeters in length and had a diameter of up to 20 centimeters. The color of the males was dark brown, almost black with characteristic wild species light stripes along the back.

The females were lighter with a reddish-brown coat color. It is important to note that initially there were two types of tours: Indian and European. Moreover, the latter was much larger than the Indian one. And although the tours are considered the ancestors of domestic cows, they had a slightly different physique, as can be seen in the photo.

For example, they had longer slender legs, larger head, more massive horns and an elongated skull. There was also a significant shoulder hump, similar to that of the modern Spanish bull. Only rare breeds, like a pahuna and a Maremman cow. The females also differed. They did not have such a pronounced udder, but instead, it was covered with wool and did not protrude from the side.

Attempt to revive the bulls

Today, the efforts of geneticists and zoologists are not in vain. Many scientists manage to revive some extinct animal species, including trying to recreate the bull tour. So, for example, it is known that Adolf Hitler thought about it. During his reign, several attempts were even made to crossbreed cattle from France, Scotland and Corsica. However, these species did not survive after the fall of the Nazi regime.

Today, scientists are also trying to continue the earlier efforts. For example, the Dutch organization Taurus Foundation, by crossing some European breeds, is trying to get cows that resemble appearance tours. However, get the original large size animals is still in development.

Inspired by the successful resurrection of extinct tarpans, Polish scientists are now also trying to recreate wild aurochs. While their project is under development and supported by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Photo gallery

We invite you to see how the bull tour looked in the photo below.

Video "Extinct animals of the Cenozoic era"

In this video you can see some more ancient extinct animal species on our planet. Many of them are the progenitors of modern animals.