Les aurochs et les bovins de Heck

So-called Heck cattle, descendants of the experimental rebreeding of the aurochs by the German brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck, have been introduced in two Dutch Nature Development Projects. The population dynamics and social structure of the herds as well as its impact on the vegetation are subject to long-term monitoring. The osteometric data of a male individual that died in 1987 are compared to the data of Danish aurochs assembled by Degerbol and Fredskild (1970). With the exception of the proximal and distal width of the humerus none of the heck measurements were found to reach the size of the smallest Danish aurochs. Large discrepancies were found in the estimated shoulder height according to the skeletal element that is used.