Ever since its debut, Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park has changed the way that
many people think about dinosaurs. Its
premise of resurrecting long-gone dinosaurs through DNA extraction is
fictional, of course, but it has provoked widespread discussion about the
possibility of bringing extinct species back to life through cloning. The discussion has focused not on Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops, but on more contemporary
species, ones which have gone extinct relatively recently at the hand of man: the
quagga, the thylacine, the dodo…
Our
technology has advanced to the point where the conversation isn’t so much about
whether it’s possible to resurrect extinct species, but whether it is ethical to do so.
What many people don’t realize, however, is that Crichton
wasn’t the first person to advocate bringing an extinct species back from the
grave. In fact, it was being attempted before
his birth (before the genetic age, even) on the other side of the Atlantic.
The sons of director of one of Europe’s most prestigious
zoos, Lutz and Heinz Heck practically grew up in a zoo. It’s not surprising then that both boys
followed their father into the profession; Lutz followed his father as director
of the Berlin Zoo, while his younger brother took over the directorship of the
Munich Zoo. The two earned reputations
as some of the most progressive, trailblazing zoo leaders of their era, achieving
many notable victories (including, at Munich, the first captive-bred African
elephant).
Like many highly successful people, the brothers sought
additional challenges, and soon settled on perhaps the most brazenly ambitious
goal imaginable: to resurrect an extinct species (keep in mind, this was in the
1930’s, before Watson and Crick unlocked the secrets of DNA). The species that they selected was one that
both brothers shared a deep passion for, for reasons which will be explored
soon. It was the aurochs, the massive
wild bovine which is the ancestor of our domestic cattle.
Cave paintings showing aurochsen (plural of "aurochs") and deer
The aurochs had made a tremendous impression on the Heck brothers…
and they had never seen one (nor had anyone else since the last ones were
killed in the early 1600s). Those
historical records that do exist of the beasts attest to their power and
majesty. Julius Caesar, hunting the
aurochs in Gaul (France) described it as “a trifle smaller than elephants…
great is their strength and great is their speed.” Caesar doubted that the beast would be
possible to capture of tame. In this he
was wrong – the aurochs had been caught and tamed, resulting in the rise of its
domestic form. From the feedlot cattle
in the western US to the sacred zebu of India, all domestic cattle are
descended from the aurochs.
The Heck brothers believed that, even if the aurochs was
gone, its essence remained, hidden among its farmyard descendents. They began a program of “breeding back”,
selecting different cattle breeds for traits that they felt represented “pure
aurochs” – size, horns, temperament, color – and tried to mix them
together. Eventually, they achieved some
degree of what they considered success – an animal that looked and, in their
best estimate, behaved like the aurochs of yore. Similar efforts were made to recreate a
second extinct species: the tarpan, ancestor of the domestic horse. Both of these recreated animals were “reintroduced”
into the forests of Central Europe.
History does not remember the Heck boys especially kindly,
and with reason. Scientifically, their
work was of questionable value – they only managed to create animals that “looked
right” as to what they expected an aurochs or tarpan to look like. Their “neo-tarpans” were created in part by
cross-breeding domestic horses with Przewalski’s wild horses, an act which
would make many modern zoo professionals shriek with rage (contamination of the
P. horse gene pool with domestic horse genes is a constant source of
frustration to their breeding program).
The darker implications of the Hecks’ work have to do with the fact that
it was 1930’s Germany…
Lutz and Heinz inherited more than a passion for zoos from
their father; they also inherited his ultra-nationalism, the same sort of
sentiment which swept Hitler into power.
To them, recreating Germany’s long-lost behemoth was less about ecology
and more about restoring Germany’s greatness in the world; what could be a more
potent symbol than recreating the nation’s largest animal? The obsession with breeding, culling, and “blood
purity” and control were mirrored on a darker and grander scale by the Nazi
racial codes.
Long after the Heck brothers died, their "recreated" aurochsen, such as this bull, live on. They are now typically referred to as "Heck cattle"
Lutz also behaved in a less than honorable manner
towards the zoos of conquered Europe. A new
movie, The Monuments Men, depicts the
Nazi theft of artwork from across Europe to stock their own museums and
collections. A similar policy was adopted
towards zoos, with prized specimens being shipped back to Germany (Lutz Heck features prominently in the book - and especially movie - of The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story). His brother Heinz, ironically, was one of the first German citizens to be thrown into a concentration camp, both for his political beliefs and for his brief marriage to a Jewish woman. He was released and survived the war. World War II put a bloody, brutal end to many
things in Europe; many of the “recreated” aurochsen and tarpans were destroyed
during the war.
It’s very doubtful, though I suppose possible, that zoos in
the future may showcase dodos and quaggas… or aurochsen and tarpans, for that
matter (frankly, I’ll be satisfied if there are still rhinos and orangutans a
hundred years from now). These days, in the age of DNA, the sort of reckless
breeding experiments employed by the Hecks brothers are frowned upon (so is
stocking your zoo with animals stolen during war).
As the 21st century unfolds, zoos
and aquariums will continue to face new challenges and controversies. At times they can feel overwhelming. We can help steer our future course in part
by learning from the mistakes and misadventures of the past.
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