Heinz Heck (22 January 1894 – 5 March 1982) was a German

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and director of

Hellabrunn Zoo Hellabrunn Zoo (or Tierpark Hellabrunn in German) is a 40 hectare (99 acre) zoological garden in the Bavarian capital of Munich. The zoo is situated on the right bank of the river Isar, in the southern part of Munich near the quarter of Thalkirc ...

(''Tierpark Hellabrunn'') in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. He was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and died in

. With his brother,

Lutz Heck Ludwig Georg Heinrich Heck, called Lutz Heck (23 April 1892 in Berlin, German Empire – 6 April 1983 in Wiesbaden, West Germany) was a German zoologist, animal researcher, animal book author and director of the Berlin Zoological Garden where he ...

, who was director of the Berlin Zoological Garden, he worked on two

breeding back Breeding back is a form of artificial selection by the deliberate selective breeding of domestic (but not exclusively) animals, in an attempt to achieve an animal breed with a phenotype that resembles a wild type ancestor, usually one that has ...

projects to recreate extinct species. The

Heck horse The Heck horse is a horse breed that is claimed to resemble the tarpan (''Equus ferus ferus''), an extinct equine. The breed was created by the German zoologist brothers Heinz Heck and Lutz Heck in an attempt to breed back the tarpan. Al ...

aimed to recreate the

tarpan The term tarpan (''Equus ferus ferus'') refers to free-ranging horses of the Russian steppe from the 18th to the 20th century. It is generally unknown whether those horses represented genuine wild horses, feral domestic horses or hybrids. The las ...

, and the

Heck cattle Heck cattle are a hardy breed of domestic cattle. These cattle are the result of an attempt by Heinz and Lutz Heck to breed back the extinct aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') from modern aurochs-derived cattle in the 1920s and 1930s. Controver ...

, aimed to recreate the

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocen ...

, the wild cattle of the European forest. This work has been criticised on grounds that once an animal is extinct, it cannot re-exist. This was contrary to Heck's view, which is that while genes of an extinct animal still exist in

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

descendants, the animal could still be recreated. Under Nazi Germany, Heinz Heck was among the first political prisoners to be interned—and later released—in Dachau for suspected membership in the Communist Party and for his brief marriage to a Jewish woman. Heck also played an important part in saving the

European bison The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...

(wisent) from extinction when the majority of its population of about 90 survived in captivity in Germany following great losses to the species during World War I. To help manage the survival of the European bison from the remaining captive population, he commenced the first

studbook A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders ...

for a non-domestic species, initially as a card index in 1923, leading to a full publication in 1932. Thanks to Heck's efforts, the European bison population has significantly increased and the species has been re-released into the wild.

References

External links

Wang, Michael: "Heavy Breeding". ''Cabinet'', Spring 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heck, Heinz 1894 births 1982 deaths Scientists from Berlin 20th-century German zoologists Zoo directors Dachau concentration camp survivors

See also

Further reading

References

External links