Regarding the interesting debate we have been having about auroch and cattle, I would like to add something. I wasn’t aware of what an amazing megafaunal species the auroch really was until I visited the Archaeological Museum of Madrid (which I advise you to visit when you are in the city, it’s fantastic). and saw for the first time several craniums. Beyond the differences in behavior, proportions, reproductive biology or diet, the auroch was a beast with a similar difference in size with respect to cattle as that between a red deer and a European roe deer, for example.
I think it is important to keep this in mind when assessing the extent to which cattle is truly a 100% functional substitute for the original species. In my opinion, it is much better to use feral cattle in rewilding than to use nothing at all, but it is still not a completely valid substitute for the species extinct in 1627.
I leave you a photo and the link to a 3D comparison of the skull of an auroch and its domestic descendant to illustrate what I mean . Diego Rodríguez
I didn’t realize they were so big.
Wow, I had no idea that they that big either. I thought the opposite, actually.
I’m a little more familiar with this species than most, but I am glad for the pictures. The aurochs is particularly interesting because of the region they were first domesticized. Not many people are aware of it, but this was a Caucasian gig. The aurochs was the reason the earliest farmers began worshipping the bull, and, indirectly, why this animal carries so much weight around the world. Those first farmers were part of the Greater Caucasus. Thanks for the pic!