section_path: Current candidate species for de-extinction/Aurochs
section_name: Aurochs
paragraph_text: Aurochs
  
  The aurochs (Bos primigenius) was widespread across Eurasia, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent during the Pleistocene, but only the European aurochs (B. p. primigenius) survived into historical times. This species is heavily featured in European cave paintings, such as Lascaux and Chauvet cave in France, and was still widespread during the Roman era. Following the fall of the Roman Empire, overhunting of the aurochs by nobility caused its population to dwindle to a single population in the Jaktorów forest in Poland, where the last wild one died in 1627.
  
  However, because the aurochs is ancestral to most modern cattle breeds, it is possible for it to be brought back through selective or back breeding. The first attempt at this was by Heinz and Lutz Heck using modern cattle breeds, which resulted in the creation of Heck cattle. This breed has been introduced to nature preserves across Europe; however, it differs strongly from the aurochs in physical characteristics, and some modern attempts claim to try to create an animal that is nearly identical to the aurochs in morphology, behavior, and even genetics. There are several projects that aim to create a cattle breed similar to the aurochs through selectively breeding primitive cattle breeds over a course of twenty years to create a self-sufficient bovine grazer in herds of at least 150 animals in rewilded nature areas across Europe, for example the Tauros Programme and the separate Taurus Project. This organization is partnered with the organization Rewilding Europe to help revert some European natural ecosystems to their prehistoric form.
  
  A competing project to recreate the aurochs is the Uruz Project by the True Nature Foundation, which aims to recreate the aurochs by a more efficient breeding strategy using genome editing, in order to decrease the number of generations of breeding needed and the ability to quickly eliminate undesired traits from the population of aurochs-like cattle. It is hoped that aurochs-like cattle will reinvigorate European nature by restoring its ecological role as a keystone species and bring back biodiversity that disappeared following the decline of European megafauna, as well as helping to bring new economic opportunities related to European wildlife viewing.
  
  Sometime in 2025, Tauros Programme and Rewilding Europe plan to release their aurochs into the wild in select areas of Europe and to have the species recognised as a protected wildlife species again. In 2026, these animals will be reintroduced to parts of the Scottish Highlands.