The son of the berlin zookeeper, Dr. Lutz Heck seems to have been born to pursue a career in animal research.
However, he is a true ambitionist, not as loving and indisputable as the average zookeeper.
After Lutz took over his father's position as zoological director of Berlin and chief zoologist of the Reich, he followed the Nazi Party and acted even more recklessly with the support of the Reich Minister of Forestry and Marshal Goering, the Chief of The Hunts.
During World War II, driven by ambition, he looted rare animals from the German-occupied zoo and transported them back to the Berlin Zoo (a history told in the 2018 Polish film "The Zookeeper's Wife").
In addition, Lutz also has a more important task - to re-breed and rewire the original cattle that have long been extinct and to rewire them.
The image of a former cow appears on a mural in a cave in France dating back 10,000 years
During Nazi Germany, Aryan theories of racial superiority flourished, and Germans considered themselves to be the best people in the world.
The large, ferocious European proto-cattle are the ancestors of modern domestic cattle, living on the European continent thousands of years ago with the Aryan ancestors, and became extinct in the 15th century AD.
It is estimated that the largest male individual in the original European cattle population can reach a shoulder height of 180 cm and a weight of up to 700 kg, which is much larger than the domestic cow, and is an uncompromising giant beast, a symbol of strength and power.
The Aryan ancestors were able to hunt and domesticate this beast, which is a strong evidence of the Aryan theory of racial superiority.
Therefore, the Nazi leadership was very eager to restore the original European cattle to the world, and also prepared to establish a reserve for the original cattle in the Białwe Forest in Poland, so that the world could see the wild original cattle.
Lutz and his younger brother Heinz co-run the original cattle breeding program.
Both are Germany's top zoologists, and as early as childhood, they began to "practice" with small animals such as rabbits.
While they were in school, European scientists had begun to breed American bison as breeding stocks in an attempt to restore european bison populations that had become extinct in the wild.
"So, a European bison with American bison ancestry still counts as a real European bison?" Questions like this plagued the Heck brothers for a long time.
Lutz Heck holding a pangolin (1892-1983)
Heinz Heck (1894-1982) taking pictures with a pony
At that time, German scholars believed that although the conservation of rare animals was important, the "purity" of the species's pedigree could not be ignored.
Heinz found that the demise of europe's native cattle populations was inextricably linked to overhunting caused by the expansion of human settlements.
Ancient Europeans had a penchant for collecting giant horns to make ornaments, which led to fewer and fewer original cattle, and the habitat gradually shrunk until there was no more left.
His brother, on the other hand, showed a growing interest in the "primitive Germanic game," or hunting, a common hobby of many high-ranking Nazi officials, who indulged in ancient myths and stories that were "free of impurities."
Lutz later showed an infinite fanaticism for the "Ancient Mythical Beast" in his autobiography, and the European bison and the original cow fascinated him.
When the Heck brothers decided to resurrect the original cow, genetic technology had not yet been invented, and they could only use the traditional "backcrossing method" to breed it.
Based on ancient books and archaeological records, they looked for modern cattle with coat colors, horn shapes and habits similar to those of the original cattle, and stabilized these traits through generations of breeding until the individual closest to the original cattle was born.
"What my brother and I need to do is integrate the features we find on different individual animals into the same breeding breed..." Lutz writes in the book.
Their approach is diametrically opposed to the way Russian scientists breed foxes artificially, not to fix certain characteristics in response to market demand, but to try to eliminate the traces left by artificial domestication, and scientists trying to re-breed spotted donkeys have made similar efforts.
But whether this method can make extinct animals "truly" return to the human world, scientists still have a lot of disagreement.
The Heck brothers traveled across the European continent, bringing back different kinds of modern cattle such as Spanish bullfighting and Hungarian grey bulls to Germany in an attempt to restore the original cattle they thought they had in mind.
In the mid-1930s, the two announced that they had successfully bred the original cattle, which had huge horns, were grumpy, and could survive without much care.
Soon, the bred cattle were sent to zoos and reserves across Germany, as well as to the Biały Forest on the border between Poland and the Soviet Union.
In fact, the animals they bred were still a little far from the real European cattle, which were still smaller, but just more similar, and later generations also called this cow "Heck cattle".
Tourists watch the Heck cattle outside the cattle pen in the nature reserve
Although the Heck brothers were scientifically aligned, the two were deeply at odds over their political lives.
His brother Lutz was keen to climb the dragon and go hunting with Goering.
Goering, who had been very happy, gave himself a lot of shiny titles, from the minister of aviation to the marshal of the Empire to the chief hunter of the hunt, and Heck followed suit, and by the way, he got the throne of the chief zoologist of the empire.
His hapless brother Heinz, who was suspected of supporting communism and had an ex-Jewish wife, was "honored" to be one of the first prisoners in the Dahao concentration camp.
Although it was later released, its future was greatly affected.
Some of the responsibilities of the Third Reich Forestry Department were very close to those of environmental protection today, but for Goering, environmental protection was only a tool for him to gain political capital and wealth.
The Nature Conservation Act, promulgated by the Third Reich in 1935, contains provisions on the establishment of nature reserves and the protection of natural monuments.
Goering sought to use the law to embezzle private property and use the Nature Conservancy to expand his territory.
As a "face project" of the Ministry of Forestry, Lutz's extinct animal breeding project was strongly supported by Goering.
After the successful breeding of Heck cattle, Heck led the breeding of European wild horses and European bison, which were herded in forests and nature reserves along with the previous Heck cattle.
In this way, the fat Marshal Goering can shoot the "Ancient Divine Beast" while fantasizing that he is the hero Siegffei in "The Song of the Nibelungen", happy like a 300-pound child.
Due to the early extinction of the original cattle, people often confuse the long-haired European bison with the original cattle, which is also one of the motivations of the Heck brothers to breed the original cattle.
In 1941, Lutz went to the Warsaw Zoo, which had been occupied by the German army, and loaded all the rarer animals back to Berlin, and all the animals he thought "had no meaning" were shot and killed for fun.
During the war, the Berlin Zoo was bombed and reduced to a sea of fire, and the Heck cows, warthogs and bears that had been locked up in the building ran out of the mess, and in order to prevent the beasts from hurting people, they were all killed by the zoo staff.
Although the Heck cattle at the Berlin Zoo suffered extermination, the Heck cattle at the Munich Zoo and nature reserve survived and thrived today, and more than 2,000 Heck cattle now live all over Europe.
In 1996, German scientists bred an "iterative version" of the Heck cow — taurus cattle that were closer in appearance to the original cows.
Although the rebirth of the original cattle still seems to be far away, the characteristics of Heck cattle are hardy and tolerant to rough feeding, which can still play a positive role in the development of modern animal husbandry.
Editorial description
Proofreading / Ou Huang Meow
Cover / Jiang Bojo
Typography / Boxing Burger Meat
Event Planner / Shinzai