Aurochs

Subspecies

There are a total of three recognized subspecies of aurochs. Only the Eurasian subspcies survived until recent times.

• The Eurasian subspecies (Bos primigenius primigenius) once ranged across the steppes and taigas of Europe, Siberia, and Central Asia. It is one of the famous Pleistocene megafaunas, and has declined in numbers along with other megafauna species by the end of Pleistocene. The Eurasian aurochs were domesticated into modern cattle breeds at around 6th millenium BC. Aurochs were still common in Europe by the time of the Roman Empire, when they were widely popular as a battle beast in Roman arenas, and excessive hunting began and continued until it was nearly extinct. By the 13th century, aurochs existed only in low numbers in Eastern Europe, and hunting of aurochs became a privilege of nobles, and later royal households. The decreased hunting did not save the aurochs from extinction, as its numbers were already too low to survive for long. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland from natural causes.

• The Indian subspecies (Bos primigenius namadicus) once lived in the hot and dry areas of India and the Middle East. It is the first subspecies of the aurochs to appear, at 2 million years ago, and from it descends the Eurasian Aurochs and the North African Aurochs. The Indian Aurochs became extinct in 9000 BC, and before that the remaining population was domesticated into the zebu. The zebu is the primary breed of cattle used in dry areas, due to its resistance to drought, which it got from the desert-living Indian aurochs.

• The North African subspecies (Bos primigenius mauretanicus) once lived in the woodland and shrubland of North Africa. It is descended from the Indian Aurochs, which migrated from the Middle East. It is unknown when the North African Aurochs became extinct, but it is known that its extinction was due to the desertification of North Africa as the Sahara Desert expanded. Prior to its extinction the Ancient Egyptians domesticated the North African Aurochs into Egyptian cattle, which was the primary breed of cattle in the Mediterranean region until the introduction of zebu from India, which slowly replaced Egyptian cattle in the region.