Edinburgh Zoo Heck cattle

lechweoryx

lechweoryx

Well-Known Member
On their blog they say they may get some Heck cattle. Does anyone know whats happened to this arrangment?
 
They're already there I think, in the old reindeer paddock. (The reindeer have moved to where the addax were)
 
there were no hecks cattle when i went in augest, and the raindeer were still in the hillside paddock.
 
How come RZSS are able to import Heck Cattle (assuming they are being imported) but weren't able to acquire the musk ox they were supposedly bringing from Liberec zoo?
 
Where did they come from? I read somewhere that they were being held on a temporary basis as a favour to another collection.
 
While the heck cattle are interesting, I think there has been some research to show that the Chillingham Park wild cattle are more closely related to Aurochs. Ecologically, forest cattle could be made up of any mixture of genes for the purpose of managed land conservation projects, and would surely adapt over time.
 
johnstoni said:
While the heck cattle are interesting, I think there has been some research to show that the Chillingham Park wild cattle are more closely related to Aurochs. Ecologically, forest cattle could be made up of any mixture of genes for the purpose of managed land conservation projects, and would surely adapt over time.
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Chillingham cattle are no closer to Aurochs than any other breed of cattle. As all domestic cattle are descendents of the Middle-eastern variety of Aurochs rather than the larger European Aurochs (that we are generally familiar with), then they can hardly claim to be remnants of the original population. Chillingham have just been left alone (genetically speaking) and have resorted to a feral lifestyle. Heck are a man-made construction (although this could be said of all cattle) that just happen to resemble the cave paintings of European Aurochs. They have proven to be suitably robust for land management in Europe, particularly in Netherlands and Germany.
 
Shirokuma said:
So does anyone know why they are at the zoo?
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If I was to hazard a couple of guesses - they are impressive animals to display, and also Derek Gow and Ian Valentine (Edinburgh Zoo Animal Manager) have a long history. See connection with Scottish beaver release...
 
Nobody complained when they introduced Yak to HWP, these are no different and fit in with their collection plan.
 
They are impressive beasts and are a great education animal. This is what happens when man tries to reverse breed to get the original, it all goes horribly wrong so take car of what you have! They are also very aggressive cattle too, you look at them the wrong way and they'll have you. Certainly an unusual animal and therefore very in keeping with the zoo's collection plan!
 
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