A charity has announced plans to introduce a herd of tauros cattle, a giant breed bred to resemble the extinct auroch species, into a Scottish Highlands estate, as a means of enhancing local biodiversity.
Tauros were bred from ancient European breeds to form a substitute to the ancient auroch, both in appearance and behavior, who once dominated Europe prior to their extinction in approximately 1627, which was due to widescale hunting and habitat loss.
The Tauros bull can reach up to 180cm tall at the shoulder, making it almost equivalent to the assumed heights of their extinct predecessor, who were one of Europe’s largest land mammals at their peak with bulls weighing in excess of 1,000 kilos.
These huge herbivores, which are considered to be the ancestors of nearly all modern domestic breeds, promote many ecological advantages to their habitats through the facility of a diverse range of wildlife and biodiversity. The tauros is expected to perform similarly.
Among these predicted advantages include: seed dispersal via the tauros’ fur; the capacity for greater plant germination in their overturned soil; soil support through their nutrient rich manure; the creation of trails that can be used by predators and the maintenance of open landscapes.
They are also genetically distinct from domesticated cattle breeds and are larger and more active than their native highland counterparts, which will bode well for habitat restoration and nutrient cycling through activities like trampling and grazing.
Trees for Life’s ‘Tauros Project’ is in the process of releasing a herd of around 15 Tauros at the charity’s Dundreggan 10,000ac estate, which is located in Glenmoriston, just 8km from Loch Ness.
Their prospective introduction into Scotland is being designed as a trial to assess the breed’s subsequent environmental impacts, with the potential to later explore their meat production and agri-tourism abilities.
The Tauros Programme
The Tauros Programme was established in 2013 by Rewilding Europe, together with the Dutch Taurus Foundation, who teamed up in an attempt to bring the auroch back to life using a selective ‘back-breeding’ technique, the results of which culminated in the Tauros.
“The main idea of the Tauros Programme is to back-breed these animals into becoming a fully self-sufficient, wild-living bovine species, that genetically comes as close as ever possible to the original aurochs.
“The final goal of the programme, to be met in some 20 years, is the presence of the Tauros as a self-sufficient wild bovine grazer in herds of at least 150 animals each in several rewilding areas in Europe,” said director of the Taurus Foundation, Ronald Goderie.
Since the start of the project, Tauros have been bred in a number of European countries, including Spain; Portugal; Croatia; Czech Republic; Romania and the Netherlands, with slight variations in the genetic composition of the breed to best suit the country’s habitat.
Most recently, in April 2023, the project released a herd of 15 Tauros into the Greater Côa Valley in Portugal, once home to the ancestral aurochs, as part of ongoing rewilding efforts in the Ermo das Águias region.
The breed was introduced with the hopes of facilitating a more biodiverse landscape, while removing dense vegetation prone to wildfire, enabling native woodland to regenerate in their absence.
