The Indian aurochs ( Bos primigenius namadicus) is an extinct subspecies of aurochs that inhabited West Asia and the Indian subcontinent from the Late Pleistocene until its eventual extinction during the South Asian Stone Age.[Chen et al., 2010: "Zebu cattle are an exclusive legacy of the South Asia Neolithic." Molecular biology and evolution, 27(1), 1-6. [1] (in Supplementary Data)]
Two breeds/subspecies of domestic cattle ( Bos taurus), the Sanga cattle ( B. t. africanus) and the zebu ( B. indicus), can trace their genetic heritage directly to the Indian aurochs.
Description
The Indian aurochs is known exclusively from fossil and subfossil records, where it shows only minimal morphologic differences to the Eurasian subspecies (
B. p. primigenius).
The Indian aurochs was probably smaller than its Eurasian counterpart but had proportionally larger horns.
[Cis van Vuure: Retracing the Aurochs - History, Morphology and Ecology of an extinct wild Ox. 2005, .] Because the range of the aurochs species was continuous from the
Atlantic Ocean coasts of
North Africa and
Europe to
Bengal, it is uncertain whether there was a distinction or a continuum between the Eurasian, North African and Indian subspecies.
The last common ancestor of Indian aurochs and Eurasian aurochs (
B. p. primigenius) is estimated to have lived about 150±50 ka BP, based on genetic analyses of living zebus and taurine cattle, the domesticated but heavily interbred descendants of those two aurochs subspecies.
[Verkaar, Nijman, Beeke, Hanekamp & Lenstra: Maternal and Paternal Lineages in Cross-breeding bovine species. Has Wisent a Hybrid Origin?. 2004.][MacHugh et al., 1997: "Microsatellite DNA Variation and the Evolution, Domestication and Phylogeography of Taurine and Zebu Cattle ( Bos taurus and Bos indicus)". Genetics, Vol. 146, 1071–1086. Abstract]
Zebu and many Sanga cattle breeds are phenotypically distinguished from taurine cattle by the presence of a prominent shoulder hump.
[Loftus et al., 1994: "Evidence for two independent domestications of cattle." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 91.7: 2757-2761. Abstract]
Range
The author Cis Van Vuure considers the aurochs species to have originated about in India and spread westwards.
Most other authors consider an origin in Africa, where the species' oldest ever remains were found, from ancestors in the
Pelorovis genus and a subsequent expansion into Eurasia more likely.
A grazing ruminant like all members of its species, the Indian aurochs roamed throughout West Asia and South Asia in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene ages. Most remains are from the Kathiawar Peninsula, along the Ganges and Narmada River rivers in what is today India. Some bone remains classified as Indian aurochs were also found further south, such as on the Deccan Plateau and along the Krishna River.
The most recent remains from presesnt-day southern India, which clearly belong to the Indian aurochs are from Banahalli in Karnataka, with an age of about 4,200 YBP. Further north, the most recent remains date from 3,800 YBP and were found at Mahagara in what is now Uttar Pradesh.
The Indian aurochs survived into the South Asian Stone Age, when its natural habitat steadily diminished by human pastoralism and agriculture spreading throughout the region around 5,500–4,000 YBP.
Possible predators preying on Indian aurochs are speculated to have been big cats such as Asiatic lion, Indian leopard and Bengal tiger, as well as other predatory mammals such as and even giant and Machairodontinae such as Homotherium and Megantereon during prehistoric times.
Domestication
The Indian aurochs was most likely domesticated in the Indus River valley, now the
Balochistan of
Pakistan around 9,000 YBP, with subsequent breeding efforts eventually leading to zebu or indicine cattle.
The domestication process seems to have been prompted by the arrival of new crop species from the
Near East around 9,000 YBP. Human pastoralism, enabled by domestic cattle, spread throughout the subcontinent around 5,500–4,000 YBP. Secondary domestication events - instances of additional genetic diversity acquired from interbreeding domesticated proto-indicine stock with wild aurochs cows - occurred very frequently in the Ganges basin but less so in southern India.
Domestic zebu are recorded from the Indus region since 6,000 BCE and from south India, the middle Ganges region, and present-day Gujarat since 3,500–2,000 BCE. Discounting gayal and Bali cattle, domestic cattle seem to have been absent in southern China and southeast Asia until 2,000–1,000 BCE, when indicine cattle first appeared there.
Feral zebu rewilding attempts
A
feral zebu herd was initiated at Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in
Madhya Pradesh.
[Ganesh Ghosh: " Evaluating prospects of reintroducing Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary." TIGERPAPER, Vol. 36: No. 2 April–June 2009] The cattle were set free in the sanctuary to act as an attractant for the critically endangered Asiatic lion
(Panthera leo persica). To the west, in the state of
Gujarat, is the Asiatic lions' true last bastion, where the big cats are known to have a taste for zebu—notably in and around Gir National Park. Furthermore, the presence of the zebu within Kuno can potentially conserve and improve the entire ecosystem and landscape dramatically, as apex predators are vital to a healthy functioning ecosystem, on all levels. By attracting
—or possibly other rare or vulnerable predators (such as
,
,
Indian wolf, or
)—the zebu will fill the
ecological niche of their prehistoric ancestors.
[A.J.T. Johnsingh (2004) "Is Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary ready to play second home to Asiatic lions?" , published in the Newsletter of Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Archived version at
]
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[6].[ Preparations for the reintroduction of Asiatic lion Panthera leo persica into Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh, India by A.J.T. Johnsingh, S.P. Goyal, Qamar Qureshi; Cambridge Journals Online; Oryx (2007), 41: 93-96 Cambridge University Press; Copyright 2007 Fauna & Flora International; ; Published online by Cambridge University Press 05Mar2007]
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