Stichting Taurus (Taurus Foundation) is a Dutch

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

which uses large

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

s grazing under natural circumstances for nature

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

. Robust

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

breeds are used for this purpose.

Background and practise

Large herbivore species like 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 ...

wisent 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 ...

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

, and

wild horse The wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'', which includes as subspecies the modern domesticated horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') as well as the endangered Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii''). The Europea ...

play an important role in the dynamics between fauna and flora and their grazing is recognized as essential for maintaining the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

in open, park-like areas. Therefore, their re-introduction into

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's natural areas is deemed necessary, but some of these species are extinct in the wild. For these, their

domesticated Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...

descendants have to be used. Stichting Taurus uses

Exmoor ponies The Exmoor pony is one of the mountain and moorland pony breeds native to the British Isles. Some still roam as semi-feral livestock on Exmoor, a large area of moorland in Devon and Somerset in southwest England. The Exmoor has been given "P ...

and

Konik The Konik or Polish Konik, pl, konik polski, is a Polish List of horse breeds, breed of pony. There are semi-feral populations in some regions. They are usually dun gene, mouse dun or primitive markings, striped dun in color. The Bilgoray, p ...

horses as large equine grazers. Robust cattle breeds like the Scottish Highland cattle and

Galloway Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. A native or i ...

s are used as well, in addition to aurochs-like primitive breeds like

Sayaguesa Cattle The Sayaguesa is an endangered Spanish breed of domestic cattle. It is named for the comarca of Sayago in the province of Zamora, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León, and is raised almost exclusively in that ...

, Pajuna Cattle, Maremmana primitivo,

Tudanca cattle The Tudanca is a traditional Spanish breed of cattle from Cantabria, in northern Spain. It takes its name from the village of Tudanca in the in western Cantabria.http://www.iberianature.com/material/cows.html Spanish cows and beefs In the pas ...

, and others. The robust grazers can survive without supplementary food during the winter and roam freely in the natural landscape of Keent the whole year.

Further projects

In the early 2000s Stichting Taurus instigated the

Tauros Programme The Tauros Programme, formerly known as TaurOs Project, is a cooperation between the Dutch foundation Stichting Taurus and universities such as the Wageningen University and Research Centre. It is an international effort to breed a type of ca ...

, which is a project attempting to breed a type of cattle which comes as close as possible to the extinct aurochs by crossbreeding and selecting the robust and aurochs-like cattle breeds. This aurochs-like cattle is planned to be released into European wild areas.Ben van Raaij: De Volkskrant: ''Oerrund blijkt superiour en wordt due teruggefokt''. 2010. In 2010 it became a cooperative effort when the Dutch organisation Ark Nature ( NL) joined the project, and in 2011 it became a European effort when

Rewilding Europe Rewilding Europe is a non-profit organisation based in Nijmegen, Netherlands, working to create rewilded landscapes throughout Europe. Their goal is to maintain and expand areas of wildlife, in a manner that has a positive impact on climate and e ...

joined.The Tauros Programme
“Tauros Organization.”
Project website, without date. Retrieved 29 October 2017.The Tauros Programme
“The Tauros Programme.”
Project website, without date. Retrieved 29 October 2017.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.stichtingtaurus.nl/ Ecological experiments

Background and practise

Further projects

See also

References

External links