Why the Caucasian tour is dying out. Tour bull animal. Description, features and causes of the extinction of the tour. Reproduction and lifespan of the tour

Cows and bulls have lived side by side with man for many centuries, ever since wild representatives of this species have been domesticated. However, none of modern people does not think about how they looked, where they lived and how wild bulls were tamed by man. Of course, their constitution, exterior and disposition were seriously different from the modern inhabitants of agricultural land. Let's talk a little about what Tur was like - a bull, who later became one of the most useful friends of man.

It was the bull bearing the name "Tour" that became the ancestor of today's cows. Unfortunately, today it is not possible to touch a representative of an ancient species, or at least look at it with your own eyes, since this primitive animal has long since died out. The last mention of the Tours living on planet Earth dates back to 1627. It was then that this valuable breed was finally destroyed by man.

Nevertheless, after the Turov, a large cow genus remained, which includes a huge number of pedigree varieties. There are also breeds that look like twins of their horned ancestor:

• Indian bulls;
• Ukrainian big bulls;
• African bulls.

Looking at them, one can imagine all the beauty and power of the ancient bull Tura.

Despite the fact that these animals became extinct many hundreds of years ago, today we have data on them, thanks to the collection of numerous historical information helping to restore the image of this animal.

By the way, the domestication of bulls of the Tour breed began even before the advent of our era. In those days, there were whole herds of these wild animals, which they began to hunt for meat.

Gradually, people became more developed, the first farms appeared. However, selection and animal husbandry in general, as a science and a direction of human activity, were in their infancy, so the population of Turs was decreasing.

In addition, man also destroyed nature, massively cutting down forests, with the aim of:

• get building material for construction settlements, shipyards, shipbuilding, etc.;
• get fuel for furnaces;
• free up space for agriculture, namely the cultivation of crops available to people at that time.

The bulls migrated from place to place when they lost their homes, however, the hunt for them continued, and the living conditions in which they fell left much to be desired.

A year before the onset of the 17th century, the inhabitants of Warsaw recorded a single herd living in the vicinity of the city, numbering only 30 individuals. Initially, such herds could number several hundred bulls. After some time, only 4 animals remained in the same territory.

Death was recorded after 27 years last representative breeds. Such a sharp decrease in the number was associated not only with hunting, but also with the fact that the bulls were deprived of the obligatory conditions for their residence:

Animals began to get sick, and the loss of livestock began without human intervention.

Description of the breed

After the end of the ice age, the bulls of the breed of interest to us became one of the largest ungulate representatives of the animal world. Today, only european bison. Other descendants of the tour will not be able to compare with him.

Today we know the following data about Tours.

Table 1. Information about the breed of bulls Tur

In total, there were two main types of Tours:

• Indian;
• European.

By the way, the Spanish bulls inherited the characteristic humps of the Turs and their unusual horn shape, although they are no longer so long.

By the way, the udder of the females of the most ancient bull was not as developed as that of modern cows. In addition, it was almost invisible from the side, since it was completely covered with wool.

Tour habitat and lifestyle

Initially, the bull of the Tur breed lived in large herds in the steppes. However, it was too easy for a human to kill him in the open. The animals understood this, and tried to move to live in the forest, as well as mixed, forest-steppe zones.

Preference was given to swampy forests, where there was a lot of moisture, and, accordingly, nutritious, succulent vegetation. The bulls lived the longest in Poland, where the death of the last representative of this breed was recorded.

Interest in hunting was fueled not only by the fact that not everyone could win the Tour, but also by the fact that the inhabitants of an entire village could be fed with the meat of one carcass.

As we have already said, the bulls lived in large communities - herds, where their own orders existed:

When it became clear that the number of bulls was seriously reduced, many European countries issued a decree on their immunity. In addition, many peoples tried to breed Turs, but, unfortunately, due to their weak genetic heredity, all attempts were unsuccessful.

The only more or less successful breeding work was shown by Spain and Latin America, which were able to preserve part of the breed's genotype.

The Heck Bull is one of the closest descendants of the Turs that exist today.

They still grow bulls that look like Turov, however, the parameters of their body are much more modest:

• the maximum weight of these individuals does not exceed 500 kilograms;
• growth reaches a mark of only 155 centimeters.

As for the nature of Turov, he was predominantly calm. But when the animal had to defend itself, it became enraged, and then the opponents had to be afraid of them and flee as quickly as possible.

Tour diet

Like any other bulls on the planet, Tur was a herbivore. At the same time, he could use all the plant products that nature gave:

• grass;
• young branches of trees;
• foliage of trees and shrubs.

In the summer, they usually managed with grass in the steppes, but in winter they preferred to live in the forest, so that they had something to eat.

In winter, even separate bull groups and individuals tried to stay close to the herd. Due to the destruction of forests, every winter the Turam became more and more hungry, and a substantial part of the livestock of these animals died precisely for this reason.

People noticed this case, and again, in civilized countries they tried to correct the situation. It is known about the existence of positions that formed a kind of ancient service for supervision in the field of nature management. Thus, their task included the following activities:

• control of the number of bulls and the health of the herds;
• monitoring the situation in the forests;
• regulation of deforestation.

Some peasant farming settlements received tasks to collect hay, which they now had to procure not only for their own livestock, but also for the Turs. They had to carry the harvested hay to the forest and leave it there so that the bulls could use it and somehow cope with hunger.

How did the breeding of Turs go?

The traditional mating games of the Turs began at the beginning of autumn, its first months, when the heat had not yet gone.

Orders mating games were like this:

• males determined for themselves the most attractive female;
• calculated the opponent;
• fought with each other not for life, but to death.

Interestingly, the last statement is by no means artistic, but literal, since fatal outcome- the expected result of the marriage battle. Thus, the surviving male proved that he was the alpha representative of the herd, and worthy of continuing his race.

Calving in these ancient cows usually happened in the spring, around the month of May. Tura females, like today's cows, began to hide before calving, and retired to the most impenetrable jungle of forests. It was there that little calves were born, who for about 3 weeks saw only their mother, as she hid the newborn from predators and enemies, including humans.

It also happened that calving occurred in September, if the mating of animals occurred later than usual. The reasons for this delay are unknown, however, the state of health of the Turs and their original strength allowed mothers to bear fruit even in hot summers.

Sometimes male Turs, bumping into domesticated cattle, could also cover local females. From such cases, weak hybrids were born, which, unfortunately, quickly died at a young age.

Summing up

Tur is a bull, which is the ancestor of all cows and bulls that exist today in the world. Unfortunately, representatives of this species on the planet have not been found for a long time. Today, livestock breeders in many countries are working on recreating this breed, or at least a variety close to it.

Video - Tour Bull

Systematics and phylogenetic relationships
Tour (primitive tour, primeval bull, wild bull) - a typical representative genus Bos(actually bulls) and the only representative of the subgenus Bos (real bulls) that has survived to our time and has been exterminated already in historical time.
Currently, there is no consensus regarding the species name of the described animal. It all depends on what time to attribute the origin of this species. Among the Pleistocene representatives of the genus Bos on the territory of the former USSR, some authors identify up to 5-6 species of this genus. Others (for example, V. I. Gromova, 1931) take only two species - the glacial Bos trochoceros and its direct descendant - Bos primigenius. This view should be considered the most reasonable (Geptner, Nasimovich, Bannikov, 1961). All other varieties of the aurochs are more correctly attributed only to the geographical and chronological races of this bull. Some authors accept the species name Bos taurus for the tur, thereby identifying at the species level the wild tur and its domesticated form - European domestic cattle (South Asian cattle probably originated from another group of bulls, the so-called lobed bulls of the subgenus Bibos) and separating it from the Pleistocene tour forms - Bos primigenius. However, such division (Bos trochoceros - Bos primigenius - Bos taurus) seems artificial. The most correct, in my opinion, is the selection of only two types of the evolutionary line of tours - Bos trochoceros and its direct descendant - Bos primigenius, that is, the tour itself. European livestock should be considered only a domesticated form of Bos primigenus and classified as a subspecies - Bos primigenius taurus (some, however, give it a species status - Bos taurus, which is incorrect). Thus, the Holocene tour, exterminated in historical time, was the same species as the Pleistocene tour, or, as it is also called, the primitive bull.
The most closely related species of the turu in modern fauna is the yak (Bos grunniens (syn. Bos mutus)). Some taxonomists place it together with the aurochs in the subgenus Bos, while others tend to distinguish the yak as a separate subgenus Poephagus within the genus Bos. Be that as it may, the yak, as noted above, is the closest form of turu among modern animals. In the morphology of the yak, typically bullish (genus Bos) features are expressed, although it also combines some structural features of bison (genus Bison), being a kind of “transitional” form between real bulls and bison (Geptner, Nasimvochi, Bannikov, 1961). On this basis, some taxonomists place bison in the genus Bos, distinguishing them only as a subgenus of Bison. On the other hand, Asian bulls of the subgenus Bibos (big-lobed bulls) are quite closely adjacent to the bison. Based on modern taxonomy, according to which bison are placed in a separate genus, and lobed bulls are distinguished only at the subgenus level, it is quite reasonable to consider lobed bulls (subgenus Bibos) more related to the tour (and all other representatives of the subgenus Bos) than bison (genus Bison ). Although the connection between the big-fronted bulls and bison is obvious, they, in turn, are more closely related to bison than real bulls. The great isolation of bison in relation to real bulls is indicated, among other things, by the fact that hybrid males (unlike females) obtained from such crosses are sterile.
So, summing up the phylogenetic relationships of the aurochs, the following should be said: among modern species the closest relative of the bulls of the subgenus Bos in general and the aurochs in particular is the yak (either allocated or not allocated to a separate subgenus), then the large-lobed bulls of the subgenus Bibos, and only then the bison. A group of buffaloes (both Asian and African) related to different kinds, represents a different evolutionary branch of the bovine subfamily (Bovinae) and is farther away from real bulls than the above-mentioned yaks, lobed bulls and bison.

Taxonomy
Squad: Artiodactyla (artiodactyla)
Suborder: Ruminantia (ruminants)
Infrasquad: Pecora (horned)
Family: Bovidae (bovids)
Subfamily: Bovinae (bovine)
Tribe: Bovini (bulls)
Genus: Bos (real bulls)
Subgenus: Bos (real bulls)
View: Bos primigenius (tur, primeval, or wild bull)

Morphology
The tour, or primitive bull, is, or rather was a large, imposing animal with a powerful, but at the same time rather slender physique. The height at the shoulders of males was 170-180 cm, reaching, according to some sources, 2 meters, and body weight - 700-800 kg. Some sources claim that the weight of the animals could be as much as a ton. However, such figures should be treated with caution. Similar sizes are most likely true for Pleistocene and Early Holocene animals. By historical time, the tours were somewhat smaller than their prehistoric relatives. However, it is quite possible that among later animals there were individuals whose weight approached a ton, and a height of two meters, however, such individuals were obviously atypically large accelerators.
In general appearance, the tour was of a lighter stock than the modern bison, or even more so the bison. The spinous processes of the thoracic vertebrae of the aurochs were much shorter than in the named species, therefore its height at the withers was slightly greater than the height at the rump. The head was in proportion to the body, relatively and most often absolutely narrower than that of bison, aurochs, lobated bulls and yaks. The horns were large and sharp. They grew first to the sides, then forward and slightly inward, the ends of the horns were bent upwards. Thus, the horns of the tours were very formidable weapon and were more effective in combat than the horns of modern bulls. Currently, only the yak has horns that are equally effective for stabbing (the horns of these two species are very similar to each other). In general appearance tours are mostly repeated by Spanish fighting bulls and semi-wild bulls of the Camargue. However, unlike them, the aurochs reached more impressive sizes, their coloration was more uniform (although in the fighting bulls it is nevertheless overwhelmingly black or at least dark, like the aurochs), and along the ridge they had a characteristic light strip. These breeds of bulls are also similar to tours in their behavior, differing from other breeds in their ardent disposition, fighting enthusiasm and great mobility. In the 20th century, several attempts were made to restore the appearance of the aurochs by breeding modern breeds of cattle. The greatest results were achieved by the works of the Berlin Zoological Garden (L. Heck). Through careful selection of several primitive breeds of cattle, especially the Spanish fighting bulls, it was possible to surprisingly a short time get a breed of bulls that were very similar to their mighty wild ancestor. This breed has not only typical turya horns and a monochromatic black color, but also a characteristic light belt along the back. By and large, morphologically, these bulls are no different from the tour, except perhaps for a slightly heavier warehouse. However, in ethological terms, these are already other animals that differ from the tour no less than a domestic cat from a wild one. But in fairness, it should be noted that the breeders in their desire to recreate the aurochs achieved amazing results: they managed to recreate not only the appearance of the males of the aurochs, but also the bay coloration of the females and young animals, that is, to obtain the sexual and age dimorphism characteristic of the aurochs, while how similar is not observed among other domestic breeds of bulls, including among those that served as the basis for the creation of the described breed.

Distribution and habitats
The distribution of the tour was very wide. However, it is quite difficult to restore the true distribution area of ​​this animal due to the fact that the remains of the postglacial tour (Bos primigenus) are often mixed with the remains of its Early and Middle Pleistocene ancestor, Bos trochoceros. Nevertheless, it can be said that initially the distribution area of ​​the tour covered Europe (with the exception of northern regions), Southern Urals, Trans-Urals, Trans-Baikal, some areas Western Siberia, China and Manchuria (from 50 to 40 degrees north latitude south and east to the Pacific Ocean), Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, Crimea, Turkmenistan, Asia Minor, Israel, Mesopotamia and some other nearby territories, as well as North Africa - from Egypt to Mauritania. Some of this information probably refers to Bos trochoceros, and some to the Pleistocene range of the aurochs proper. It is very difficult to determine the distribution area of ​​the tour in historical time.
The biotopes of the tour were very diverse. He lived both in forests, sometimes even in very dense ones, including damp and marshy ones, and in sparse forests, forest-steppe, steppe, etc., as well as in the foothills. In some places (Pyrenees, Caucasus), tours lived even in the mountains, up to and including alpine meadows. In Europe, in the last centuries of its existence, tours to summer time they preferred open meadow pastures, and went to the forests for the winter, feeding there partially on branch forage (Geptner, Nasimovich, Bannikov, 1961).

Lifestyle and behavior
It is rather difficult to judge the behavior of an extinct animal. Nevertheless, thanks to historical data, as well as focusing on modern relatives of the aurochs, one can to some extent judge the lifestyle and behavioral features of this animal. As for the latter, here, in my opinion, it is best to focus not on wild bulls (yaks, gaurs, bantengs, etc.), but on semi-wild or feral representatives of European cattle, as well as on such breeds as Spanish fighting bull.
Ttsry lived in small groups. According to some reports, they united in these groups mainly in winter, and in summer they stayed more alone. But most likely, adult males led a solitary lifestyle, and females from young animals obviously huddled in small herds. It is quite possible that males sometimes formed their own bachelor groups.
The basis of the diet of tours was grass and shoots of trees and shrubs. In autumn, acorns played a very significant role in the nutrition of aurochs. The rut took place in September, the birth of calves in the spring (Geptner, Nasimovich, Bannikov, 1961).
Tours possessed explosive temperaments and great fighting spirit. In Russian folklore, they serve as a symbol of power and courage. Hunting these bulls, with their strength and mobility, has always been very dangerous and was considered a valiant deed. In part, this explains the relatively small number of remains of aurochs compared to the remains of aurochs in the settlements of Paleolithic people.
In prehistoric times, the adult tour had few enemies. Wolves were a danger only to the young. Only lions, primitive people, sometimes, probably, bears, and in some regions also tigers could dare to attack seasoned bulls.

Causes of extinction
Tur belongs to those animals of the Pleistocene megafauna that successfully crossed the border of the Pleistocene and lived safely in the Holocene epoch. So the extinction of this species cannot be attributed to any climatic or any other natural changes. The reason for the extinction of the aurochs was both direct persecution by man (hunting) and his exclusion from natural environment habitation (agriculture, cattle breeding). On the vast range of their habitat, tours became extinct at different times. If we pay attention to the time of the disappearance of the aurochs in certain regions, it becomes clear that the aurochs died out primarily where a person first became civilized and "cultivated". So, in Egypt, the tour died out by the end of the ancient kingdom (before 2400 BC). In Mesopotamia, the aurochs "lasted" longer, where it met during the time of the Babylonian kingdom, but in later times of the Assyrian kingdom it apparently died out (about 600 BC). In Central Europe, tours were conducted much later - in the Middle Ages. In the XII century, aurochs existed in the wild along the Rhine, Dnieper, in particular in the Chernigov lands (Geptner, Nasimvochi, Bannikov, 1961).
By 1400, tours had disappeared in Central and Western Europe, but still met in the Kaliningrad region. The tours have survived the longest in Poland (especially in Mazovia) and partly in Lithuania. For the last centuries and until the date of the death of the last tour (1627), the animals lived here under the protection of special decrees, and then they were kept as park animals in the royal hunting grounds (Geptner, Nasimovich, Bannikov, 1961).
As has been noted more than once above, the tour is the ancestor of European cattle and is genetically very close to it. Cattle (European) essentially belong to the same species as the aurochs, that is, Bos primigenius. In some breeds of domestic bulls, the signs of the tour appear quite clearly. These breeds include Spanish fighting bulls, Scottish and English park cattle, Hungarian steppe cattle, gray Ukrainian cattle and some others.

© Based on the materials of the encyclopedia "Mammals Soviet Union”, volume one - “Artiodactyl and odd-toed ungulates” (V. G. Geptner, A. A. Nasimovich, A. G. Bannikov), 1961.

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 domestic cattle came, 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 also used its horns during mating games, and if he did not die during this period, he could live up to 15 years - this was exactly the life expectancy of the 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

The tours that lived in different regions differed greatly 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 ones ... 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.

The tur animal is the wild ancestor of the domesticated cow. The year of death of the species is precisely known - 1627. In that distant XII century, they tried to keep the last population of aurochs in the forests of Eastern Europe. However, it turned out to be too small to maintain the genotype of the species. So the last tours on Earth just faded away for genetic reasons. Most likely, they were killed by inbreeding, that is, closely related crossing, which accompanies all isolated small communities.

The tur animal is the wild ancestor of the domesticated cow

How the extinct wild bull looked like is known from rock paintings, descriptions and sketches of the book publishing period, as well as from the remaining representatives of domesticated cows that have retained the maximum resemblance to their wild ancestor.

The closest relative of the tur is the Watussi bull. It is characterized by very long horns pierced by a system of blood vessels. The horns serve not only for defense and fights between males, but also for cooling the whole body. These cows are particularly survivable in severe conditions of heat, drought, scarcity of feed and abundance of predators.

For many tribes equatorial Africa watussi are almost the only source of food. Their natural properties were also evaluated by agricultural producers of the European type of economic organization. In the 1960s, Walter Schultz brought two bulls and one cow to the American continent. So African cows began to explore the expanses of America.

In the 20s of the same century in Germany, an attempt was made to reproduce cows that, in their qualities, were as close as possible to the wild ancestor. As a result, the hake bull was born. Germany of these times was already Nazi, so biological experiments on the reproduction of ancient bulls were highly politicized. Money was allocated to obtain a new breed of animals, in which the power of the body would be combined with a wild disposition.

It was decided to cross bison and bulls, which are used for bullfighting. The result should have been huge cows that have aggressiveness.

The breed of cows got its name from the names of two brothers who were engaged in these works. Partially, the brothers achieved their goal - the bulls turned out to be very aggressive. They rushed at people, animals, trees, fences. And here resemblance the tour failed. This breed was more like an enlarged version of domestic cows with a wild disposition.

Further work was stopped by the arrival of the war in Germany. Almost the entire breeding stock of hake bulls perished.

However, scientists did not rest on this. They are trying to restore the semblance of the tour in Holland. In our time of molecular biology and genetics, this is possible. However, in any case, the restored tour will be a phenotypic similarity to the ancestor. After all, nothing is known about the genome of this tour.

Gallery: animal tour (25 photos)

Tours of the Caucasus (video)

The main characteristics of the animal

The tour is an artiodactyl animal from the bovid family, a subfamily of bulls, a genus of real bulls.

Its range covered almost all of Europe, with the exception of Scandinavia. The Asian part of the range included the entire Middle East, Central Asia, southern Siberia, Far East. These bulls met in India and North Africa.

What does the bull that once inhabited most of Eurasia look like? If we summarize all the information about this animal, we get the following characteristic of the species.

1. The tour was a huge muscular beast. Its size was somewhat inferior to the parameters of a bison or bison, but still the ancestors of cows had a size and strength that could withstand predators such as a lion or a cheetah that once inhabited Central Asia and southern part Of Eastern Europe. The height of the tour at the withers was about 170-180 cm.
2. The weight of a primitive bull ranged from 800 kg to a ton.
3. The head was set high. This landing is dictated by the need to wear long sharp horns.
4. The coloration of adult males was black, and a narrow white stripe. The females were smaller and lighter. Their coloration was reddish-brown.

The biggest wild bull in the world (video)

Biotope of ancestors of cows

The vast range of a large hoofed animal suggests that this ancestor of the cow could live in the steppes, forests and even in semi-deserts. However, the contours of the range were recreated based on paleontological finds, which does not always mean that the animal really was in its native biotope.

Such large animals usually live where there is a lot of grass. Such large animals living in herds would hardly be able to feed themselves in the taiga or in a dense mixed forest.

Tours are animals of the steppes and forest-steppes. Their finds in arid zones indicate not so much that they could feed themselves in semi-deserts, but that at that time other plant communities existed in this place.

The existence of aurochs and bison in the forest zone was possible only under the condition of a high mosaicity of the forest, that is, a combination of thickets with light forests, clearings and edges. Under such conditions, huge herbivores could feed not only on grass, but also on branches of woody plants.

In the Middle East and in North Africa tour was exterminated a very long time ago - in the third millennium BC. In Mesopotamia, there were no wild cows by 600 BC. e. This extermination was both direct and indirect. These animals were actively hunted, which, of course, reduced the number of populations. In parallel with this, there was an expansion of agriculture, which contributed to the expulsion of ungulates from their habitats.

It is not surprising that the last aurochs and bison survived in the dense forests of Eastern Europe. The remaining massifs of these forests are concentrated on the territory of two countries - Belarus and Poland. They are called Belovezhskaya Pushcha. For some reason, it was these forests, located almost in the center of Europe, that were not cut down, burned and plowed up. The aurochs and bison were saved in these forests not because they had especially good conditions. It was just that in these wilds it was more difficult for a person to hunt them.

Tours were less fortunate than bison. Indeed, by the time of the death of their last population, these animals were no longer in nature. The efforts of the local princes were somewhat belated and, apparently, were ineffective.

A similar situation developed by the middle of the 20th century with bison. During the war they were practically exterminated. The remaining individuals have already been rescued in captivity, but using the achievements of genetics. Having crossed several individuals with bison, it was possible to avoid the consequences of inbreeding.

In the Polish city of Yaktorov there is a monument to the last tour. This is a reminder to people that it is easy to exterminate a species, but difficult and sometimes impossible to preserve or restore.

The appearance of the aurochs, completely exterminated and disappeared as a wild animal more than three hundred years ago, and its craniological and skeletal features are well known. There are folklore materials, descriptions of the animal made by travelers, images in old books, in particular, the remarkable so-called "Augsburg image", various historical evidence and numerous images of the tour on utensils and other archaeological objects. A very large number of wonderful wall paintings prehistoric man in the caves of Spain and France. The paleontological material is also great.

The bulls were of enormous stature and much larger than modern domestic bulls. Their height at the shoulders was 170-180 cm and weight from 600 to 800 kg. According to some reports, the height at the withers even reached 200 cm. These data refer, however, to an earlier time - in the last centuries of their existence, the tours were smaller, and their height, apparently, did not exceed 150 cm. Cows were significantly fewer bulls. The difference between them, judging by some reports, was greater than that of modern domestic animals.

In general appearance, the tour was an animal of a relatively light warehouse, with a not too massive front part of the body and rather high legs. He was much lighter and leaner than our domestic bulls. His withers were not high, his back was straight, only slightly rising towards the withers, his croup was straight. The head is proportional, set rather high, rather narrow at the forehead, with a straight profile, very similar to the head of livestock. The horns are large, very sharp, light with dark ends. They move away from the skull, first to the sides, then up and forward and slightly inward, the very end is up. When the head was tilted, the horns pointed forward. The ears are small, the end of the muzzle is bare. The neck is massive, with a slight dewlap. The tail is not long, the end of it descended only slightly below the hock. Cows in general appearance, in particular, in the development of horns, did not differ much from bulls, however, they had a lighter build. The front part of the body was less massive and the head was lighter.

The hair in the summer fur was apparently short and close fitting, but somewhat longer than that of livestock. Almost the entire tail is covered with short hair, only at the end of its large brush of elongated hair. On the forehead between the horns, the hair was elongated and curly. Apparently, the hair at the withers was also very slightly elongated. The winter fur was longer and rather shaggy, longer than that of livestock.

There were sharp gender differences in the coloration of the aurochs. The bulls were painted in an even black color or black with a brownish tint. The end of the muzzle (the chin and hair along the border of the bare part) was somewhat lighter, along the back there was a narrow light (almost white) belt very characteristic of the tour. Apparently, the belly and inner parts of the legs were slightly lighter than the body. The cows were reddish-brown (bay) and, apparently, also had a narrow light dorsal belt. Winter coloration* of cows was darker. The calves in the first outfit had a bright bay color - like cows or brighter.

Turam was characterized by a fairly significant individual variability. Since it can be judged from the drawings of prehistoric man and some paleontological materials, it was expressed in a change overall dimensions and in the size and shape of the horns. They seem to have always, at least in bulls, with their ends pointing forward, but the shape of their bend at the base seems to have changed, and they were not always curved exactly as described above and shown in Fig. figure. Apparently, irregularities in the form of horns occurred more often in cows. The color intensity also changed and sometimes (very rarely) the cows acquired the dark color characteristic of bulls.

It is possible that in the last millennium of the free existence of the aurochs, there could have been cases of crossing it with livestock and, in connection with this, increased variability.

In such a widespread animal (from Scandinavia to North Africa and Mesopotamia), which existed in very different natural conditions, undoubtedly should have manifested itself and geographical variability. However, very little is known about this. Apparently, there were differences in both size and color. So, the tours of North Africa were bright red. In our epics, in which the tour is mentioned quite often, they usually talk about the “bay tour”. It is possible that the tours of the Dnieper region had just such a coloration, but more likely it was the same as described above.

The systematic position and connections of precisely that form that has survived to our era, that is, Bos primigenius proper, and the limits of its existence in the depths of time are not yet completely clear. For the Pleistocene, even part of the boundaries of the Pliocene and even the very top of the Pliocene, many forms are described - species and subspecies of the genus Bos. Some authors accept 5-6 species of this genus for the territory of the USSR. On the other hand, it is more correct to consider that there were only two of them - the glacial Bos trochoceros and the post-glacial modern tour descended from it. Bos primigenius. Everything else is just geographical or chronological races or individual variations. This concept seems to be very convincing.

The distribution of the tour was very wide. Fossil remains and other data (images) about the habitation of the aurochs are known for North Africa from Egypt to Mauritania, almost all of Europe to the north up to 60 °, from Southern Urals and from the Trans-Urals and the south of Western Siberia (from Ishim, Altai, the Pre-Altai plains), from near Krasnoyarsk, from Transbaikalia, Manchuria and China from 50 ° to 40 ° N. sh. south and east to the Pacific Ocean, and in addition, from Turkmenistan (Annau near Ashgabat), from the Caucasus, from the Crimea, Asia Minor, Palestine, Mesopotamia and some other adjacent places.

Some of this information refers to Bos trochoceros, some, no doubt, to our tour, but to a very distant time. Therefore, it is very difficult to single out in this territory the one on which the aurochs lived precisely in historical time, or at least in the last millennia. Archaeological, folklore and historical materials most likely suggest that in historical times tours were conducted in North Africa (Egypt, North-West Africa, Mauritania) throughout southern, central and western Europe, including England (in Ireland, they apparently , was not), north to southern Sweden, inclusive, in the Balkans, in Asia Minor, in Syria and Mesopotamia and, perhaps, in southern Turkmenistan.

On the territory of the European part of the USSR, the tours lived in the Baltic republics, in Lithuania and Belarus, in the Dnieper basin (at least near Chernigov and Kyiv) and, probably, in the Don basin, at least in its upper part. In the north, they met eastward to the region of Novgorod and the southern shore of Lake Ladoga (the northernmost habitat of the species). It is possible that the animals lived or visited in the regions of Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Smolensk, Kalinin, Yaroslavl and Novgorod1. In the middle of the first millennium BC, the aurochs, apparently, was widespread in the steppes of Ukraine and even Ciscaucasia - excellent images of the animal are known from the Chertomlytsky and Maikop barrows.

Thus, the range of the tur in our country was an irregularly shaped triangle, which had as its base the western border of the state, in the north starting from Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland. The apex of the triangle captured the Don basin and stretched as a cape into Ciscaucasia. The northeastern border probably skirted Moscow from the south. The spread of this animal, which feeds mainly on grass, to the northeast was probably hindered by heavy snowfall and the length of the snowy season. The tour hardly crossed the 50 cm snow depth line.

Apparently, before historical time, aurochs lived both in Western Siberia and in Kazakhstan, however, the available single indications do not make it possible to get an idea about the range of the animal here and about the connections of these habitats with the European one. Images of a tour dating back several millennia are available in the Minusinsk Basin and, apparently, later, on the rocks of the Chulak Mountains in the middle reaches of the Ili; there is information about the habitation of the tour in the Kamensky district of the Kulunda steppe in the 16th or 17th century and near Kuznetsk in the 18th.

There is very little information about the biology of the tour. In Europe, at least in historical times, he kept to forests, sometimes even continuous, damp and swampy. However, it is undoubted that in some parts of the range and even in most of it, he lived in sparse forests, or where forests alternated with meadows, and in the forest-steppe and even in open steppe spaces with poorly developed forest vegetation (urem forests) or in places maybe even completely without it (Africa). In Europe, in the last centuries of their lives, aurochs also preferred open meadow pastures in the summer and went to the forests for the winter, feeding there partially on branch food.

It is highly probable that the continuous forest tracts, in which the last Lithuanian and Polish aurochs really lived, were for them (as well as for the bison) the last refuge, where the animals were pushed back by the persecution of man. In some places (Pyrenees) tours lived in the mountains, up to alpine meadows.

Tours lived in small groups. According to some reports, they joined these herds mainly in winter, and in summer they kept more alone. In nutrition, in addition to grass and shoots of trees and shrubs, acorns also played a certain role in autumn, on which the animals grew very fat. The rut took place in September, the birth of calves in the spring.

Tours had a wild and evil disposition, were not afraid of humans and were very aggressive. In Russian folklore and chronicles, they serve as a symbol of not only power, but also courage (“brave bo be yako and tour”, “buy tur Vsevolodovich”). Hunting them with their strength and mobility (as epics emphasize, they were quite dexterous and could run fast) was very dangerous and was considered a valiant deed. “Two tours me on roses and with a horse,” wrote Vladimir Monomakh, who was a wonderful hunter. The small number of remnants of aur in ancient human settlements, with an abundance of remnants of aurochs, some researchers explain by the fact that aur was too dangerous an enemy and too difficult prey for Paleolithic and even Neolithic people. Adult bulls often fought among themselves and, apparently, with bison. In fact, they had no enemies among predators - wolves were not dangerous for adult animals and only calves and young ones suffered from them.

On the vast territory described, the aurochs were exterminated, apparently also partly driven out by cattle breeding, at different times, partly a very long time ago. Yes, in Egypt wild tour died already by the end of the ancient kingdom (before 2400 BC), in Mesopotamia it lasted, apparently, longer - lived during the time of the Babylonian kingdom, but no longer met in the later times of the Assyrian kingdom (about 600 BC). BC.). In Central Europe, tours lived in the Middle Ages and survived in places, for example, along the Rhine, until the 12th century. In this century (at least at the beginning of it), they existed in the wild along the Dnieper, in particular in the Chernigov lands. Here, Prince Vladimir Vsevolodovich (Monomakh) hunted them during his Chernigov reign.

By 1400, the aurochs disappeared in Central and Western Europe, but were still found in the Kaliningrad region, and after that, and in general, they survived the longest in Poland (especially in Mazovia) and partly in Lithuania. The last centuries and until the date of the death of the last round (1627), the animals lived here under the protection of special decrees, and then they were kept as park animals in the royal hunting grounds. They had guards, they put haystacks for them in the winter, etc. The death of aurochs in Central Europe coincided chronologically and is largely associated with the “epoch of clearings” in the 9th-11th centuries. (in the 11th century they were still common in the royal hunting grounds in the Vosges). Their preservation in Poland and Lithuania, obviously, was due to the presence here of vast, hard-to-reach and sparsely populated forest areas.

The tour is the ancestor of European cattle. In some of the most primitive rocks, individual signs of it have been preserved quite clearly. These breeds include Scottish and English park cattle, Hungarian steppe cattle, gray Ukrainian and some others, especially the fighting bulls of Spain and southern France, in particular the semi-wild bulls of the Camargue (the mouth of the Rhone).

The preservation of the most typical turya appearance among fighting bulls is primarily due to the conscious maintenance of the type of animal that was required by the traditions of the arena, coming from very distant times. In particular, this applies to the shape of the horns, as well as to the black color. At the same time, fighting bulls are not exactly the same type and among them there are separate “lines” associated with individual factories (“ganaderia”), cultivating animals specifically for “corrida” (bullfighting). In some of these lines, the features of the tour are more pronounced than in others.

The domestication of the aurochs took place about 4000 years ago (2000 years before our era) in South-Eastern Europe (in Greece). From here, the home form spread to the west and north-west into the Baltic Sea basin and by our time has reached a great variety.