Extinct Animals E-Book

Murray Liam

• Herausgeber: Liam Murray
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Extinct is a classification category on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Threatened Species List.
Extinction occurs when a species — also called “taxon” for the list — no longer exists anywhere on earth. When scientists have done extensive research and agree that there is no longer a single individual specimen of the species they declare it extinct. Essentially, extinction represents the termination of a taxon.
There are six main reasons why species become extinct:

• Habitat loss
• Introduction of a foreign species
• Hunting
• Pollution
• Disease
• Loss of genetic variation

Human actions play a huge role in species extinction, but they’re not the only culprit. Incredibly, 99 percent of species that have ever lived on the planet have gone extinct. Typically, species have a lifespan of about 10 million years, but there are some that stick around for hundreds of millions. Take jellyfish; they have shimmied around the world’s oceans for about 550 million years! However, just because most animals eventually go extinct doesn’t mean we should not be concerned with their conservation status. When species are unnaturally dying out, to maintain the planet’s ecological balance, we must make an effort to ensure their survival.

Leseprobe

Aurochs









The aurochs were a species of wild bovines that once roamed a vast swath of territory throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Resembling oversized cattle, this species used to be one of the most widespread grazing animals on the planet thousands of years ago. But population pressure from humans and domesticated cattle gradually reduced their numbers to a small range. The last known aurochs went extinct in 1627 in central Poland. However, the aurochs has held such a powerful grip on the human imagination that there have been numerous attempts to revive the extinct species from the dead.

5 Amazing Aurochs Facts

 

oAurochs are the ancestors of all domesticated cattle. This domestication event first happened around 10,000 years ago.

 

oScientists believe they were actually domesticated twice: the first leading to the zebu cattle of South Asia and the second leading to the taurine cattle of Europe.

 

oAurochs were animals that played an important role in many human cultures. They are depicted in the famous Lascaux cave painting of France, which are around 17,000 years old. They also appeared on various heraldry, murals, and trinkets around the world. They were  also vividly described by Julius Caesar during his wars in Gaul (modern-day France).

 

oAt one point, the aurochs were probably the largest land mammals to occupy Europe. Their size even eclipsed the saber-toothed cat and the European lion.

 

oScientists have tried to bring back the aurochs in various ways using methods such as modern biology and DNA.

Aurochs Scientific Name

The scientific name of the aurochs is Bos primigenius. The name derives from the Latin term meaning original or firstborn. This is meant to signify that the aurochs were the ancestors of all domesticated cattle. The more informal name of aurochs comes from the early modern German word for the species. An alternative name is the urus. The aurochs are part of the genus Bos, which includes all wild and domesticated cattle. There are generally considered to be three different subspecies of aurochs corresponding to their geographical regions. Some taxonomists may classify the domesticated cattle as another subspecies or its own separate species. More distantly, aurochs are related to gazelles, buffalo, antelopes, sheep, and goats as part of the family Bovidae.



Aurochs Appearance and Behavior

The aurochs were a member of the order of even-toed ungulates — meaning hoofed animals that bear weight equally on two of their toes. Although they are extinct, scientists have been able to reconstruct their appearance with some degree of accuracy from skeletons, paintings, written descriptions, and genetic analysis. The aurochs was an animal that resembled modern cattle but with longer legs, a bigger skull, broad horns, and massive shoulder muscles. The coat color was a dark black or brown with a white stripe running down the spine. These formidable beasts probably measured up to six feet at the shoulder height and weighed somewhere between 1,500 and 3,000 pounds. This would make them among the largest bovines to ever live. Female cows were much smaller than the male bulls on average and also had smaller horns and a lighter color.



Because scientists cannot directly observe the behavior of the aurochs, they must make some inferences based on written descriptions from the historical records and the behavior of modern cattle. It is believed that aurochs congregated in herds of up to 30 individuals for at least part of the year. It is also possible that some herds were mostly composed of a single sex at a time. Like modern bovines, they probably had complex social relationships that could either involve affection or dominance, depending on the situation. Both males and females engaged in fights and displays for social status. When provoked, the males were highly aggressive and could cause serious injury to any predators or threats. As they were larger than modern-day cattle, their charge could easily kill an adult human. When dealing with other members of the same species, however, their aggressiveness probably depended on the difference in rank. Disputes could be settled peacefully as well. Like many other ungulates, the aurochs probably had eyes with horizontal pupils on the sides of their heads to give them a wide view of their surroundings. They also obtained a lot of information from their senses of smell, hearing, and touch. Based on the modern study of cognition in cattle, it’s possible that the aurochs had a limited ability to remember food sources and distinguish between familiar relations. They had a number of different vocalizations to communicate with other members of the species or give warnings to potential threats.



Aurochs Habitat

At the height of their population, the aurochs roamed across most of the Eurasian supercontinent. The main subspecies of aurochs, Bos primigenius primigenius, covered a huge range of territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific, though it was probably absent from Ireland, the Arabian Peninsula, South Asia and Tibet, Japan, and the far north. A second subspecies, Bos primigenius namadicus, was primarily found in the Indian subcontinent. A third subspecies, Bos primigenius africanus, inhabited the North African region from Morocco to Egypt. The aurochs preferred to inhabit grasslands, floodplains, and lightly forested woodlands in temperate climates. This enabled it to thrive in a huge number of different places. However, due to the large grazing lands needed to maintain their population numbers, it also put them at conflict with people and domesticated cattle for living space. As human civilization spread, the species gradually died out over most of its habitat and only survived in Eastern Europe until the 17th century.

Aurochs Diet

The aurochs obtained all of their nutrients from grazing huge expanses of land. The most common foods they ate were grasses, twigs, and even acorns. Aurochs had a four-chambered stomach that contained various bacteria to help them break down and digest the tough cellulose of plant matter. Each compartment had its own specialized task. Food may spend dozens of hours in the animal’s stomach, during which it is regurgitated, chewed over, and swallowed again multiple times. Nearly all even-toed ungulates can claim to have a multi-chambered stomach.



Aurochs Predators and Threats

Only the most ferocious predators, such as wolves and prehistoric large cats, dared to take on the adult aurochs. Their massive size offered them a huge degree of protection against predators. However, young calves were vulnerable to being picked off if they wandered too far from the herd. Sick adults left behind by the herd also made an easy target for hungry predators. The spread of human civilization and domesticated cattle probably marked a turning point in the fortunes of the aurochs. Even before the rise of modern industry, it is believed that aurochs went extinct from a combination of hunting, habitat loss, and disease transmission from cattle. Aurochs hunting was often done for practical purposes to obtain meat, skin, and horns. But as numbers declined, aurochs hunting became a sort of sport for the privileged nobility and elite, particularly during the medieval period in Eastern Europe.



Aurochs Reproduction, Babies, and Lifespan

Although aurochs are long extinct, scientists have gained some insights into aurochs breeding from the study of historical writings and observations of modern cattle behavior. The mating season probably took place in the late summer or early autumn. Males competed fiercely to attract females and ward off rivals. After a gestation period of several months, the calves would be born at some point in the spring. They started out with a lighter coat color at birth and gained their darker coat after a few months of life. The calves would stay close to the herd and receive care and attention from the mother until reaching the age of independence, after which they could choose to stay with the herd or join a new one. Assuming the aurochs are similar to cattle, it’s possible that they reached sexual maturity after a few years and lived near 20 years in the wild.