Mary Allen
The aurochs were a special animal species and belonged to the genus of cattle. He is extinct. In 1627 the last known aurochs died in Poland. The aurochs previously lived in Europe and Asia, but not in the cold northern temperatures. He also lived in the northern part of Africa. Our domestic cattle were bred from the aurochs a long time ago.
The aurochs were larger than today’s domestic cattle. An aurochs bull can weigh up to 1000 kilograms, i.e. a ton. He was 160 to 185 centimeters tall, similar to a grown man. The cows were a little smaller. A bull was black or black and brown, and a cow or calf was reddish brown. The long horns were particularly striking. They were curved inward and directed forward, and grew to about 80 centimeters in length.
The aurochs especially like areas where it was damp or swampy. They also live in forests. They ate herbaceous plants and leaves from trees and bushes. The cave dwellers used to hunt the aurochs. This is proved by a drawing in the famous Lascaux Cave in France.
About 9,000 years ago, humans began dying to retrain wild aurochs into domestic animals. Our domestic cattle, a species of their own, descend from them. In the last century, people have tried to breed aurochs again originally. But they didn’t really succeed.