Zoo History: Recreating the Aurochs

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 21^st 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.