193 AUROCHS AND HECK CATTLE Louise H. VAN WIJNGAARDEN-BAKKER* Summary Résumé Zusammenfassung So-called Heck cattle, descendants of Les aurochs et les bovins de Heck. Auerochse und "Heck-Rind". the experimental rebreeding of the Les bovins de Heck, descendants de Das sogenannte "Heck-Rind" ent­ aurochs by the Gennan brothers Heinz la re-création expérimentale de stammt der experimentellen Rückzüch• and Lutz Heck, have been introduced in /'aurochs par les frères allemans Heinz tung des Auerochsen durch das deutsche two Dutch Nature Development Pro­ et Lutz Heck, ont été introduits dans Geschwisterpaar Heinz und Lutz Heck. jects. The population dynamics and deux Projets hollandais de Dévelope­ Solche Tiere werden in den Niederlan­ social structure of the herds as well as ment de la Nature. Les dynamiques des den im Rahmen zweier Naturschutzpro­ its impact on the vegetation are subject populations et la structure sociale des jekte gehalten. Populationsdynamik und to long-tenn monitoring. troupeaux, de même que leur impact sur Sozialstrukturen dieser Herden und ihr The osteometric data of a male indi­ la végétation font l'objet d'un suivi à EinjlujJ auf die Vegetation sind Objekt vidual that died in 1987 are compared long tenne. liingeifristiger Beobachtung. to the data of Danish aurochs assembled Les données ostéométriques d'un Die Knochenmafle eines 1987 ver­ by Degerbol and Fredskild ( 1970). With individu mâle mort en 1987 sont compa­ storbenen miinnlichen Tieres werden mit the exception of the proximal and distal rées avec les données d'aurochs danois den von Degerbol und Fredskild (1979) width of the humerus, none of the heck rassemblées par Degerbol et Fredskild zusammengestellten Daten diinischer measurements were found to reach the ( 1970). À l'exception des largeurs Auerochsen verglichen. Mit Ausnahme size of the smallest Danish aurochs. proximale et distale de l'humérus, aucu­ der proximalen und distalen Werte des Large discrepancies were found in the ne des mesures prise sur les bovins de Humerus erreicht keines der MajJe der estimated shoulder height according to Heck n'atteint la taille des plus petits Rückzüchtung die Grofle der kleinsten the skeletal element that is used. aurochs danois. Des écarts nets ont été diinischen Ure. Diskrepanzen wurden trouvés dans les estimations des hau­ auch in der Widerristhohe und den zur teurs au garrot en fonction de l'élément Berechnung verwendeten Skeletteilen squelettique utilisé. festgeste/lt. Key Words Mots clés Schlüsselworte Heck cattle, Aurochs, Shoulder Bovin de Heck, Aurochs, Taille au "Heck-Rind", Auerochse, Schulter­ height, Osteometry. garrot, Ostéomérie. hohe, Osteometrie. Introduction burg print and on Paleolithic cave paintings in France and Around 1920 the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck started Spain. Both aimed at an animal with a large body, long separately an experimental rebreeding of the aurochs. The legs, long horns that curved towards the front and a smalt main thought behind the experiment was that ail the char­ udder for the females. They took particular care to recon­ acteristic attributes of the aurochs are still present in the stitute the colour of the pelt: black for the males with a genes of domestic cattle, but that these genes were divided clear stripe along the back, brown for the females. Both over several current cattle breeds. By combination of a males and females had to have a white nose. number of selected breeds it should be possible to obtain an As behavioral characteristics they aimed at a late animal whose exterior and behaviour were in accordance maturity and timid, suspicious behaviour. with the extinct aurochs. Lutz Heck who was director of the zoo at Berlin main­ For the exterior and conformation the Heck brothers ly used three breeds and their hybrids. He crossed Corsican based themselves on old descriptions, the famous Augs- cattle, a breed possessing a primitive colouring, with Span- *lnst. Pre- en Protohistorische Archeologie, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZAmsterdam, The Nether/ands. ANTHROPOZOOLOGICA, 1997, N° 25. 26 194 ish and Camargue cattle. Animais from this crossing line tially increased its numbers. Since 1987 the birth rate clear­ have not survived the war. ly surpasses the death rate (fig. 1). The herd has twice been His brother Heinz, director of the zoo at Munich, used enlarged by the introduction in 1987 and 1989 respectively more breeds, among them the Hungarian longhorn, Corsi­ of 15 animais, but most of the increase is due to natural can cattle, Scottish Highland, Chillingham and several reproduction. In 1991 the total herd consisted of ca. 160 alpine breeds. After 11 years Heinz Heck had obtained a individuals (Blaakmeer et al., 1992). Following the latest cow and a bull with more or less the desired colouring and estimates there are now 265 free roaming animais (persona! conformation. It seems that most of the present day Heck communication of the keeper, J. Griekspoor). Since the cattle descend from this one pair. A small herd survived the severe winter of 1987 there has been no extra provision of war and since then several breeding groups have been set winter fodder. Consequently only natural deaths occur. up, mainly in Germany. These seem to take place mostly in march and april. In the first years after introduction births took place Present day use the whole year round, but the last years they are seen to Because of their colouring and their tirnid behaviour, concentrate more and more in spring, March to May both very different from most recent cattle breeds, Heck (fig. 2). The temporary more restricted births evidently are cattle are often described in the popular press as "wild cat­ the result from a more restricted mating season in the late tle". The fact that they are the product of interbreeding of summer. At the same time a slow differentiation in the spa­ fully domestic cattle is often not recognized. Neither has tial distribution of the animais has been observed. Since a this been recognized by some legislators: under Dutch law few years a pattern seems to emerge whereby a segregation Heck cattle are considered wild animais and thus subjected of males and females takes place after the mating season. to game and hunting laws. Veterinary contrai is not neces­ Small male groups, consisting of solitary males up to a sary and none of the local and European legislation regard­ maximum of five bulls, take up fixed winter territories, ing cattle keeping is applicable. while the females and their young of the previous years The "wildness" of Heck cattle has also attracted those make use of the whole terrain. So-called bachelor groups nature conservationists who are looking for large grazers to have been recognized in several wild bovid species such as maintain open landscapes. Heck cattle have now been intro­ the African buffalo and Water buffalo (Blaakmeer et al., duced into several nature development areas as large grazers. 1992: 30). In the Netherlands there are currently two relatively It is tempting to think, though not possible to prove, that large nature conservation projects that use Heck cattle. The the Heck cattle are exhibiting here a remnant of the original main aim of these projects is to reconstitute a more com­ behaviour of wild cattle. In this respect the continuation of plete ecosystem with a high degree of self regulation. The the monitoring of the behaviour of the Heck cattle in the two experimental grazing projects using Heck cattle started Oostvaardersplassen region will be of great importance. in 1983: one on the mudflats of Flakkee and one in the Oostvaardersplassen region. In each of the projects ca. 30 ' N ·1 animais were introduced. In the Oostvaardersplassen the 1 so ~---------------~ 1 Heck cattle were accompanied from 1986 onwards by 1 Konik horses and, since 1992, by red deer (Wigbels, 1994). !40 Although conducted in very different environments, the l grazing experiments have led in each case to more open l 1 terrain altemated with patches of higher vegetation. Fol­ l lowing the changes of the vegetation under grazing pres­ 1 29 sure can be meaningful for the reconstruction of past envi­ ronments where grazing of cattle is surmised. 1 ! Two other aspects are of importance to zooarchaeolo­ l10 gists: the behaviour of the animais and the size of the l skeleton. 1 83 84 85 86 87 88 8') <)tl 91 Seasonality ofbehaviour Year ! The group of Heck cattle from the Oostvaarder­ 1: Birth and death rnt:e of the Heck cattk fmrn the splassen, on which we will focus in this paper, has substan- (1983-199!). Al>7HROPOZOOLOGICA. 1997. N" 25-26 Section/: Methods 195 N 35~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only two measurements that do not follow the general pattern, the proximal and distal widths of the humerus are 30 respectively 6% and 7% larger than those of the smallest 25 male aurochs. Sorne of the bones, most notably the metacarpal, give a very solid impression (fig. 7). When we 20 compare its measurements it is obvious, because its lcngth 15 stays 12% under the smallest wild male, while the smallest width of the diaphysis is only 1% narrower. 10 Shoulder height 5 The original breeding cxperiment of the Heck cattlc did 0 not succeed in producing animais with a shoulder hcight Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec comparable to that of the aurochs. The shoulder height of Mon th the skeleton in our collection is not known, bccausc during Fig. 2: Distribution of births of the Heck cattle from the its life the animal could not and never was approachcd by Oostvaardersplassen ( 1983-1991 ). man to be measured. lts shoulder height has been estimated by making use of the multiplication factors established by The skeleton Matolcsi ( 1970: 118). For the metapodials the factors for In the winter of 1987 several animais of the group in male cattle, as recommended by von den Driesch and the Oostvaardersplassen died.