Giant and extinct cow is about to come back to life

Aurochs were a type of cattle that was extinct in 1627, when the last of the species died in a forest in Poland. Now, almost 500 years later, they can walk the Earth again thanks to advances in technology: scientists are close to reviving the ancestral animal of cows and bulls.

Operation Taurus, for example, creates 300 calves with DNA traces of aurochs. Scientists select cattle with characteristics more similar to those of extinct animals and try to recreate the species today. With each new generation, calves are more like their original aurochs, both in size and behavior.

And look, the aurochs were very big: they were quietly over 2 meters tall and weighed over 1 ton. Breeds such as Podolica, Busha and Maremmana have traces of their ancestors and are used in studies that try to bring aurochs back to life. Nevertheless, the authors of these projects believe that we will never be able to have a 100% “original” auroch.

These wild cattle helped shape the landscape and geography of all of Europe. Bringing it to life would be a way to rescue this evolution and encourage tourism. Other extinct animals, such as the mammoth and the moa (a 3.5-meter-high bird), are also part of projects that seek “disengagement”.

The aurochs appear in various rock paintings, showing that they were very important for human development, especially in agriculture. This is also an incentive for scientists to bring them back to life.