Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Heck horse is a horse breed that is claimed to resemble the tarpan (Equus ferus ferus), an extinct wild equine. The breed was created by the German zoologist brothers Heinz Heck and Lutz Heck in an attempt to breed back the tarpan.
The breeds that resulted included the Heck horse, the Hegardt or Stroebel's horse , and a derivation of the Konik breed, all of which have a primitive appearance, particularly in having the grullo coat colour. Some of these horses are now commercially promoted as "tarpans", although such animals are only domestic breeds and not the wild animal ...
Some cave paintings depict horses as being dun and with the primitive markings. The Przewalski's horse is dun-colored with primitive markings. So, too, are horse breeds such as the Konik and the Heck horse, "bred back" to resemble the now-extinct tarpan, many of which are grullo or mouse dun in color.
Heinz Heck (22 January 1894 – 5 March 1982) was a German biologist and director of Hellabrunn Zoo (Tierpark Hellabrunn) in Munich. He was born in Berlin and died in Munich . With his brother, Lutz Heck , who was director of the Berlin Zoological Garden , he worked on two breeding back projects to recreate extinct species.
Heck horse in Haselünne, Germany (2004). Lutz was the third child of Margarete and Ludwig Heck (1860–1951), director of Berlin Zoo from 1888 to 1931. He grew up with his brother in the grounds of the Berlin zoo and became very interested in animals and zoology from an early age.
The Heck horse was the result of the first attempts at back breeding domesticated horses to recreate the Tarpan, an extinct subspecies of wild horses. Tarpan – A population of free-ranging horses in Europe that went extinct in 1909.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Heck cattle were bred in the 1920s to resemble the aurochs.. 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 gone extinct.