Tur or primitive bull. Primitive wild bull - tour: a description of an extinct animal, the progenitor of modern cattle. Food of the Caucasian tour

Tour, or primeval wild bull, from Latin Bos primigenius, is an extinct species, the ancestor of a large artiodactyl animal, a strong, beautiful and powerful beast with a muscular body and long beautiful curved horns, the length of which was up to 1.80 cm. The height of the average animal, male, is approximately two meters, weight up to 800 kg. The color of an adult male is predominantly black, along the back, along the ridge there was a “belt” white color, and females and juveniles were brownish-red. Lived alone and in groups winter time animals were gathered in large herds. The ancestor of a large cattle mainly grass and young shoots, leaves of trees and shrubs.

Tur is a very strong animal and worthy opponents he did not have, he easily coped with any predator. The last round died of illness in 1627 in the forest, in Yaktorovo, where a monument was erected on this occasion. The tour lived in the warm season on open area, in the steppes, in cold weather, moved to a more protected zone - to the forests. Tur is a very popular animal in Slavic folklore. Many proverbs, sayings, songs and poems have been written about him. In Russian epics, the tour is also mentioned about the heroes. He is depicted on national emblems many cities from post-Soviet countries (for example, Kaunas, Lithuania and Turka, Ukraine).

The pictures show a primitive wild bull - tour:

Photo: watussi is the modern closest relative of the extinct primitive aurochs.

Today in Spain and Latin America(on special farms) they raise fighting bulls to participate in bullfights. Their phenotype in terms of body structure and appearance resembles its wild ancestors, but in weight (about 500 kg) and height (155 cm) it is much smaller than its progenitors.

The Eurasian tur is a mammal, ancient ancestor domestic cows. It is believed that these animals appeared about 2 million years ago and subsequently spread throughout Asia, Europe and northern Africa. The animal tour disappeared from all these territories gradually, due to the following reasons: hunting, reduction in forest area, domestication.

The last place on the planet where the animal walked is the European continent, the last instance of this animal was a female who died in 1627 in the forests of Poland.

Due to spread across continents there were three subspecies of this bull:

• European;
• African;
• Indian.

Each subspecies has contributed to the gene pool of modern domestic cattle. So, the African tour is the ancestor of modern African breeds, for example, the Watussi bull. The Indian subspecies is the ancestor of modern European breeds.

Taxonomy

Very often tours are considered European bison. however, they are different animals. The first examples of this misunderstanding appeared in the second half of the 18th century, when the first naturalists from Europe began to draw up the first biological classifications. At that time, the live tour had not existed for more than 100 years, and the number of bison was rapidly decreasing. About the tour and about the bison in Western Europe there was no reliable information, so Carl Lenney decided to leave this question open.

Two opposing currents of naturalists immediately arose.. Supporters of the first defended the thesis of the existence of a single wild species of cattle, considering both the bison and the tur to be representatives of the same species. In contrast to them, there was another opinion, the supporters of which believed that domestic cows and wild bison are different animals, therefore, in ancient Europe there must have been two different kinds.

In the early 19th century, excavations of dozens of skeletons scattered across Europe resolved the controversy. Examination of these skeletons confirmed that tour in its characteristics is very close to domestic cows and different from the bison. Subsequently, within the species of the bull, subspecies of the African and Indian began to be distinguished. The name "tur" comes from the language of the ancient Gauls and means "wild mountain bull", the description of which is found in many Roman literary sources of that time. The wild bull is also called this animal in the bible.

Gallery: ancient animal wild tour (25 photos)

Short story

The first representatives of the bull of the tour trace their origin to Central Asia approximately 2 million years ago. From here they gradually spread in the direction of all parts of the world, reaching the territories of India, Russia, China, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Approximately 700-800 thousand years ago, a wild bull tour appears on the territory of the Iberian Peninsula and inhabits the north of Europe, reaching Germany approximately 250,000 years ago. Climate change on the planet ensured the subsequent existence of the three subspecies of the animal, which were mentioned earlier in the article.

Human pressure on wild aurochs has increased over time, ranging from hunting it for meat (for this reason, the animal disappeared from the territory of Great Britain around 1300 BC) and ending with deforestation for agricultural purposes and competition for pastures with domesticated cows. Before the era of the Roman Empire, this species of mammals had already disappeared from the territories North Africa, coasts mediterranean sea, Mesopotamia and India.

In the Middle Ages, only european tour on the territory of eastern Germany, and in the 16th century animals remained only in the territories of the Polish forests of Jaktorov and Wiskitka. In 1476, these forests, together with the right to hunt in them, became the property of royal family and only the king had the privilege of killing the bull. During the reign of Sigismund the First the Elder and his heir, animals were treated very carefully, they made sure that people and other animals did not disturb them, and they fed the tours with hay in winter. Subsequent kings were not so caring towards the ancestor of the cows and continued to actively hunt them.

Several censuses of the number of the Polish tur reflect its slow decline, so in 1564 there were 38 specimens, in 1566 only 24 individuals remained, in 1602 only 5 individuals were found, 4 males were killed on the hunt in the next 20 years, the last female died of natural causes in 1627 year.

Description of the animal's appearance

The European tour was a robust animal with a hunched back as a result of its long vertebrae. The head of the animal was large and longer than that of modern domestic cows. Below is a reconstructed image of an extinct wild bull as it looked.

He possessed huge and strong horns, white at the base and black at the ends of the horns. The length of the horns could reach 1 m, with a shape in the form of an ancient lyre. The animal had long limbs, so it could develop impressive speed. Average Height animal to the sacrum ranged from 160 to 180 cm, in the case of males it could reach 2 m. According to the description of animals in Roman and medieval sources, it can be concluded that they had a dark woolen coat.

Animal behavior

These animals were aggressive, able to attack anyone who did not keep enough distance, very strong and fast, which could even attack a person. Animals united in herds, consisting of males, females and their cubs. The herd size varied. Old males usually left the herd and led a solitary life. According to the Polish chronicles of the 16th and 17th centuries, the country in which the last representatives of this species lived, the mating of animals took place in August and September. In May and June, offspring were born.

The habitat of the animal is dense forests and plains.. At the same time, in areas with a large amount of vegetation and water, the number of livestock was higher than in other areas. Tur is a herbivore, so it fed on various types of leaves, grass and soft branches. Animals most likely migrated with the seasons, moving every certain period of time in the same way that African antelopes do today. The natural enemies of the aurochs were the following animals:

• lions (before their extinction in Europe);
• wolves;
• the Bears.

Tour domestication

Analysis of the genes of various species of modern cows confirmed that the domestication of the aurochs occurred in various places and different nations. The first mention of the domestication of a wild bull are found in Greece and are about 8500 years old. A little later, the tour was domesticated in India, Assyria, from where it was transported to Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Kanaan and Egypt. Approximately in the first millennium BC, there are references to the domestication of the aurochs in the territory of the Iberian Peninsula, brought there through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Attempts to recreate the view

In the 1920s, the German brothers Lutz and Heinz Hecky proposed to "recreate" the extinct aurochs by crossing different types of cows, while selecting the typical characteristics of the aurochs in each generation. The result was the appearance of the species "Heck's tour" or the more common name "Heck's bull". The bred breed had big sizes body, was strong, had long horns and black or brown wool. However, critics fell upon the new breed already at the birth of the first "Heck bull".

The fact is that many characteristics of the bred breed did not correspond to reality and were the result of breeder errors. At the same time, the resulting “Heck tour” had even less resemblance to the ancient wild bull than other domestic breeds of cows. In various places on the planet, natural selection led to the emergence of breeds of cattle, which, in terms of their characteristics, were closer to the tour than the Heck bull.

Indeed, Van Voor even showed that modern Indian bulls are the closest ancestors of the wild aurochs than the Heck bull. The experiment to recreate the race of the ancient aurochs failed, although at present this unsuccessful artificially bred species of the bull is included in the natural reserve of the Netherlands and Germany.

Moreover, these alleged modern aurochs continue to represent animals that are neither the size, nor the length of the horns, nor the color of the coat, like the ancient aurochs. If we consider the aspect of temperament, then the situation is even worse here, since the bred species is unable to get enough food in winter and is unable to defend itself against wolves. For these and other reasons, critics consider this experiment a failure and ironically that Heck's tour is just domestic cows that were taken out of their stalls and forced to live in the forest. Professor Z. Pusek, who is in charge of the program for the restoration of the European bison in the forests of Poland, called the bull Heck "the biggest scientific deception of the 20th century."

Currently, attempts to recreate the ancient tour continue, for example, it should be said about the TaurOs project, which is based on precise genetic and morphological features ancient animals. In this project, preference is given to breeds with primitive characteristics, such as the Scottish highland bull, the Hungarian steppe bull, the dwarf Turkish bull, and others.

Attention, only TODAY!

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 the range of its 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 bone remains and surviving 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 a 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 reviving and restoring natural population 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, which are numbered in total eight kinds. 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. By the ability to move at high speed on an almost sheer surface, no one can compare with them.

On the slopes of the Caucasus

In the territory Russian Federation also have their authorized representatives. The Caucasian tour is widely known. 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 lower 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're nowhere but Main Caucasian ridge do not meet. 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, tours descend from alpine meadows on 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 upper bound forests, 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 the harsh conditions of the mountains. It withstands frosts, blizzards, snowfalls. In places where tours live, other ungulates are rarely found. Tours are very cautious animals. They have sharp eyesight, a keen 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 on 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.

It is rare that people think when looking at a real cow, where it came from, and who are its progenitors. In fact, it came from non-existent already extinct primitive representatives of wild cattle.

Tour bull is the ancestor of our present. These animals have not existed on earth since 1627. It was then that the last one was destroyed. wild tour bull. Today, this extinct giant has counterparts among African, Ukrainian cattle and Indian animals.

These animals lived for a long time. But this did not stop people from learning about them as much as possible. Research, historical data have greatly helped in this.

Initially, when a person first meets tour by a primitive bull there were a large number of. Gradually, due to labor activity man and his intervention in the nature of these animals became less and less.

Due to deforestation tour ancient bull had to move to other places. But this did not save their population. In 1599, in the Warsaw region, people recorded no more than 30 individuals of these amazing. Very little time has passed and there are only 4 left.

And in 1627, the death of the last round of the bull was recorded. Until now, people cannot understand how it happened that such huge ones died. Moreover, the last of them died not at the hands of hunters, but from diseases.

Researchers are inclined to the version that tour extinct bull suffered from weak genetic heredity, which was the reason for the complete disappearance of the species.

Description and features of the tour

After ice age the tour was considered one of the largest ungulates, bull photo tour are proof of this. To date, only European ones can be equal in size to it.

Thanks to scientific research And historical descriptions we can have an accurate idea of ​​the dimensions and in general terms extinct tours.

It is known that it was a rather large animal, with a muscular structure and a height reaching up to 2 m. An adult tour bull weighed at least 800 kg. The head of the animal was crowned with large and pointed horns.

They were pointed inward and spread wide. The horns of an adult male could grow up to 100 cm, which gave the animal a somewhat intimidating appearance. The tours were dark in color, with a brown color turning into black.

There were oblong light stripes on the back. Females could be distinguished by their slightly smaller size and reddish brown coloration. Tours were divided into two types:

• Indian;
• European.

The second type of bull tour was more massive and larger than the first. Everyone claims that our cows are the direct descendants of the extinct aurochs. This is how it really is.

Only they have big differences in physique. All parts of the body of the tour of the bull were much larger and more massive, which is confirmed by the photo of the animal.

They were the owners of a noticeable hump on their shoulders. This was inherited from the extinct tour by the modern Spanish bull. The udder of the females was not as pronounced as in real cows. It was hidden under the fur and completely invisible when viewed from the side. Beauty, power and greatness were hidden in this herbivore.

Tour lifestyle and habitat

Initially, the habitat of the bull tour was steppe zones. Then, in connection with the hunt for them, the animals had to relocate to forests and forest-steppes. They were safer there. They loved wet and swampy areas.

Archaeologists have found many of these remains at the site of the present Obolon. They were observed for the longest time in Poland. It was there that the last round of the bull was captured.

There were people who wanted to make this animal a pet, and they succeeded. The hunt for them did not stop. Moreover, the bull killed during the hunt was considered the most excellent trophy.

The hunter then acquired the status of a hero. After all, not everyone can kill such a huge and strong animal. And its meat could feed a huge number of people.

Tours preferred to live in herds, in which the female tour dominated. Small teenage bulls lived mostly separately, in their close company. And the old males simply retired at all, and led a reclusive lonely life.

Representatives of the nobility especially liked to hunt these animals. Vladimir Monomakh was one of them. I would like to note that only the most fearless people could indulge in such an occupation. After all, there were not isolated cases when a bull tour without problems took a rider along with a horse on his large and strong horns.

Due to its power and strength, the animal had no enemies at all. Everyone was afraid of him. Mass felling forests have become a big problem for these bulls. In this regard, their number gradually and noticeably decreased. When there were noticeably fewer of them, a decree was issued that it was inviolable. But, as you can see, this could not help them in any way.

After that, there were many attempts to produce a prototype of these animals by crossing, but none of them was crowned with success. Achieve the required dimensions and similar external signs so no one succeeded.

The peoples of Spain and Latin grow animals that resemble the appearance of a bull tour. But their weight is mostly no more than 500 kg, and their height is about 155 cm. They were calm and at the same time aggressive animals. They were able to cope with any predator.

Tour meals

It was already mentioned above that the tour bull was a herbivore. All vegetation was used - grass, young shoots of trees, their leaves and shrubs. In the warm season, they had enough green spaces in the steppe regions.

In winter, one had to move to woodlands in order to soak. At this time, they mostly tried to unite in a large herd. Due to deforestation in the winter season, the tours sometimes had to go hungry. Many of them died for this very reason.

The mass death of tours did not go unnoticed by people. They tried their best to rectify the situation. There were even posts that controlled the situation in the forests and tried to protect this species.

And the local peasants were even given a decree to collect hay not only for their livestock, but also to take it to the forest for bulls in winter. But, apparently, these efforts did not help either.

Reproduction and lifespan of the tour

The rut of the tours mainly fell on the first autumn month. Males in frequent cases fought for the female among themselves real and fierce battles. Often such fights ended lethal outcome for one of the opponents.

The female got a strong tour. Calving time was in May. At this time, the females tried to hide away, to the most impassable places. It was there that a newborn calf was born, which a thrifty mother hid from potential enemies, and especially from people for three weeks.

There were cases when, for some unknown reason, animals delayed mating and babies were born in September. Not all of them managed to survive in the harsh winter time.

Also, male aurochs of bulls repeatedly covered livestock. From such mating, hybrid animals appeared, which turned out to be short-lived and died. The most difficult test for them was harsh winters.

Extinct tours left only the brightest memories of themselves. Thanks to them, there are real breeds of cattle. Many enthusiasts still continue to breed breeds that even approximately resemble the ancient giants. It is a pity that all this has not been successful so far.