„I would like to congratulate conservationists in Germany on a successful project. For other countries in Europe it is surely an example worth following,“ appreciated the project of the German conservationists Dalibor Dostal, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation. „Germany showed that wisents can live also in the most industrial country of Europe, with a lot of cities and very heavy traffic infrastructure,“ added Dalibor Dostal.

The German conservationists released an eight-member wisent group into free nature. The animals had been before in a vast acclimatization fence for three years. The project of wisent return had enjoyed a great support of the local companies.

The wisent is the biggest freely living terrestrial vertebrate in Europe. Males can reach the weight of 530 to 920 kilogrammes, females of about one half less. At the beginning of the 20th century the species was about to extinct. After the First World War both freely living populations, in the Caucasus and in Polish Bialowieza, were exterminated and the species have survived only thanks to its breeding in captivity.

Thanks to reintroduction projects, the wisent has returned to a number of European countries: Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Belarus, Slovakia and the Ukraine. In Germany it was released into a vast fence in 2010 and the animals were living there in semi-wild conditions for three years. The reintroductions are being prepared in other European countries. European Wildlife organization is working on its own project of a wisent return in Central Europe.

Although global temperatures have been growing for over a long period, weather oscillations can cause, according to scientists, cooling down in some parts of the world. As it has been happening in Europe recently. The cause are the dramatic changes happening in the Arctic in recent years. They were accompanied with a record loss of ice cover at the North Pole last year. There is of 80 per cent less of sea ice there than 30 years ago.

These processes weaken the mechanism which influences the climate in this area. In vast areas of the Arctic, where in the train of sea surface uncovering the glacier is disappearing and there is appearing much darker sea surface which much less reflects sunrays, and so the warming is getting still faster.

According to climatologists, this is what influences significantly the weather in Europe. A slightly warmed up Arctic, actually, ceases pulling warm ocean and atmospheric currents and streams from the equatorial area which warm strongly the climate in Europe.

The weather oscillations caused by climate changes also disrupt strong air flowing in the atmosphere from the west to the east, which, under normal circumstances, separates the mass of cool air in the Arctic from temperate zone areas. Climate changes lead to decay of this wind barrier and cool air penetrates like that into Europe and other areas.

“A cool spring in Europe has reminded that climate changes can have much more complicated consequences than one would expect. In many parts of Europe it is freezing now because the world is getting warmer and the weather is becoming less predictable,“ stated Dalibor Dostal, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation.

The report warns that about the year 2030 water can be a bigger dispute object in the world than mineral wealth and energy. In Europe, in the train of climate changes, there moreover threatens the formation of a dry land strip which will affect Bulgaria, a part of Romania and the west of the Ukraine, and across the east of Poland it will reach the Baltic Sea.

According to experts this can cause a significant food price growth and an inflow of refugees from the affected countries to other European states.

„There can be seen that the problems which are being struggled with in a lot of countries of the Third World now can just within one generation hit also a significant part of Europe,“ commented the study conclusions Dalibor Dostal, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation. The price growth, as the experts say, will concern mainly wheat. With the advancement of global warming many agricultural areas will cease to be suitable for its growing. And what is more, rising temperature will lead to a bigger spread of pests all around Europe.

„We were addressed by several breaders ofExmoorand Hucul ponies who are keen on joining the project or who offer us their animals. Also, a lot of horse lovers woud like to help take care of the horses,” says Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife organization.

The project is about back-breeding of an European wild horse from two horse breeds – Exmoor pony and Hucul pony, which are the closest to the original European wild horses. The project should re-introduce animals that would resemble original wild horses when they come to their appearance and behaviour. The project shall also observe to what extent are both breeds able to adapt to the environment of centralEurope.

Not only the public but the media, too, took an interest in the project. There were several articles on the return of wild horses published in newspapers, the information was broadcasted on television and radio. The organization was approached by a documentarist who wants to make a documentary film about the progress of the project.

“We are pleased that the public and media are interested in the project. It is a big motivation for us to continue working on it,” added Dalibor Dostal.

The time between this January and October was the ninth warmest in the historical charts which have record the measurement results since 1850. If we counted only six months between May and October, this year would be even among the four warmest years in the history of measurement. This emerges from a draft report about the world weather by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Because of high temperature the arctic glaciers were melting in a very fast pace. In the middle of September the total area of them was 3.41 million of square kilometres, which was the least from the beginning of the satellite measurement. Compared to the previous minimum from 2007 the ice area decreased of another 18 per cent. It decreased significantly also in the comparison with the previous month, even in August the area of the arctic glacier was 4.1 million of square kilometres. And that was also a record low value. The least state measured this year equals approximately to the half value which was measured by scientists between the years 1979 and 2000.

Also the glaciers in the Austrian Alps were melting considerably. Mainly because of above-average temeperature this spring and summer. Last year was almost as destructive for the glaciers as the record years 2003 and 2011. The Pasterze glacier at the highest Austrian mountain Grossglockner have become thinner of nine metres. A loss of about two metres was also recorded at the Goldbergkees glacier and the Kleinfleisskees glacier is thinner of 1.5 metre. In the last years these glaciers were losing 70 centimetres of their thickness in average during warm months.

North America and Europe were hit by a heat wave in spring months. Just in the USA there were broken 15,000 day temperature records at various places during that. The heat wave was connected with a period of drought, which was felt mainly by the inhabitants of south-east Europe. Experts also stated that as a consequence of the Earth warming the sea level increaes of 60 per cent faster than it was predicted by UN expert group in 2007. The sea level grows of 3.2 milimetres a year, while Intergovernmental expert group about climate changes (GIEC) of UN from 2007 stated the growth of two milimetres.

“The consequences of global climate changes are significantly faster and more destructive than experts estimated just a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, governments have not taken appropriate steps,“ stated Dalibor Dostal, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation. “In the next years will be therefore necessary to expend more effort not only for measures slowing down the climate changes, but also for adaptation measures which enable the nature and people to deal better with the proceeding climate changes,“ added Dalibor Dostal.

“In the past centuries wild horses were exterminated. But their genes have survived in some primitive breeds of horses,” says Dalibor Dostal, director of European Wildlife conservation organization. According to experts, by back-breeding animals in which genes of wild horses have been preserved, we can get horses which will correspond to the original wild horses, resemble their appearance, size, colour, behaviour and even undemanding nature when it comes to dietary diversity.

The project will work with two primitive horse breeds which are close to the original wild horses. One of them is the Hucul, a breed that originally comes from the Carpathian Mountains and seems very close to the original wild horses that used to inhabit the region. The other one is the Exmoor pony which comes from the British Isles and which seems to not to have changed much since the Ice Age.

In this project European Wildlife organization cooperates with two partners – Czech breeders of Hucul horses and the Taurus Foundation from the Netherlands which has long-term experience with breeding of Exmoor ponies. Furthermore, experts from this organization search very intensively for horse breeds which would be the most suitable for back-breeding of European Wild Horses.

In the first years the animals will be kept in vast enclosures. For further breeding only those individuals will be selected which most resemble the characteristic of wild horses as far as we know now. The long-term aim is to create horses which will resemble herds that used to inhabit Europe and that are fit for purpose

The attempt to back-breed wild horses had already taken place in 1930s in Poland. The outcome was the Konik. However, new scientific findings, including DNA analyses, shows that, in many ways, Konik does not resemble original wild horses.  „According to the latest researches regarding genetics, history and appearance,  it seems clear that the Konik has nothing to do with prehistoric horses and is clearly of mixed origin,“ says Henri Kerkdijk from the Taurus Foundation.

„From genetic researches, we have learned that the Exmoor pony is the closest relative we have of the Northwest European prehistoric horse. This is confirmed by other researches like bone measurements, historical documents, blood type researches, coat colour genetic researches and dental researches,“ adds Henri Kerkdijk.

Another important thing to add is that contrary to the Aurochs, wild horses in Europe seem to have been more diverse in terms of appearance. Horses in general are more adaptable to changing circumstances and the diverse climates, landscapes and vegetation in Europe have resulted in different Horse ecotypes suited to local circumstances.

The Hucul horses bred in the Czech Republic have many genes of the original wild horse, but in an attempt to save local Hucul horses, they have been cross-bred with several other horse breeds in the past decades, for example Hafling or Fjord. That is why for back-breeding only those individuals that  most resemble the original wild horses of the region will be selected.

There is yet another aim of European Wildlife´s  project. In cooperation with experts they will observe how both breeds – Huculs and Exmoor ponies – can adapt in Central Europe with its specific climate, terrain and vegetation. Central Europe is situated between the areas of occurrence of both horses breeds. For instance, the distance between the heartland of the Hucul, in Romania, and Prague is about 1070 km and the distance between the heartland of the Exmoor pony and Prague is about 1250 km. That is why adaptability of both types of horses is going to play a key role in deciding which breed will be chosen to work with in the framework of the project dedicated to the return of wild horses to Central Europe.

“In mountainous areas every day a number of endangered species of butterflies and birds living in open landscapes become extinct. But those particular species can be saved by introducing big grazing animals including the aurochs because it is their grazing that helps to maintain open landscapes,” says Dalibor Dostal, the director of European Wildlife conservation organization.

The project is part of a program of the European Centre of Biodiversity whose aim is to protect endangered species and to reintroduce the ones that have become extinct in many places – European bisons, wild cats or wild bees. And the aurochs, of course.

At present, the Dutch Taurus Foundation is preparing two herds that will form the base for semi-wild breeding herds of aurochs in the mountains of the Czech Republic. The aurochs are brought back by cross-breeding the most suitable primitive breeds of cattle from the whole of Europe within the Tauros Programme.

„The central idea of the Tauros Programme is to find the European bovine breeds with the best ‘primitive’ characteristics and breed them into a new fully self-sufficient cattle breed. It will not be an exact copy of the aurochs, but will be very close. Therefore we call the animal the Tauros. The breeding should be done on a large scale because large numbers are needed,” said Ronald Goderie a board member of the Taurus Foundation. The Aurochs is the animal to choose as our reference, because after about 400.000 years of evolution, the Aurochs had turned into an animal perfected for the European situation.

The Foundation examined about 30 primitive bovine breeds and works with about 6 European breeds, each with at least some of the right characteristics. In each area they prefer to start with a suitable local primitive cattle breed if available and if proven to have enough primitive characteristics. The project  started in 2008  and is divided into four phases. In the concluding phase, after about 2025, the expected results will have all the right characteristics of the aurochs –  the colour, size, behaviour and the way of grazing. These animals will by then have been recognized as wild living creatures and released into the wild. But the early results from the Taurus Foundation already look very promising, so probably within a couple of years the herds will look like real aurochs-herds.

The first attempt to back-breed the aurochs was realized by the Heck brothers in Germany in the 1920s-1930s. They created the so called Heck cattle that is still being kept at some zoos and used in several nature reserves. However, those particular animals do not resemble the original aurochs neither by their body size, nor by the shape and size of their horns, nor by their behaviour. That was the reason why the Taurus Foundation started with this new back-breeding initiative. This time on a scientific base, including genetic research, that will be performed by the world leading experts on ancient DNA.

Once the aurochs roamed over vast areas of Europe, Northern Africa and Asia. It was an impressive animal, perfectly adapted to the diversity of landscapes it inhabited. The Aurochs ranged from open savannah-like landscapes to marshes, forests and lower mountains and was able to fill in most ecological niches encountered in Europe.

Grown up Aurochs could hold their ground against big predators such as wolves. The long and thick horns acted as a powerful defence against any outside threat. The animal was up to two meters high and due to its long legs and slender build it was an agile animal.

The body shape of the aurochs was, like in other wild bovines, athletic and, especially in bulls, showed a strongly expressed neck- and shoulder musculature. Even in carrying cows, the udder was small and hardly visible from the side; this feature is similar to that of other wild bovines.

Regarding the coat colour of the aurochs; a certain set of genes that in cattle colour genetics is called ‘wild type’ was responsible for a distinct colour pattern; calves were born with a chestnut colour, young bulls changed their coat colour after a few months into a very deep brown or black with a white eel stripe, also called dorsal line, running down the spine. Cows retained the reddish-brown colour. Typical for both sexes was the lightly coloured mouth. The eel stripe and lightly coloured mouth are responsible for an effect called countershading. It means that predators like wolves, and lions in prehistoric times, were not able to see the whole contours of the animal. Since even the smallest detail in appearance has had a meaning, it is therefore our task to breed a bovine that resembles the Aurochs as closely as possible.

Short video of the first generation of backbreeding Aurochs you can see here.

Presentation of Aurochs backbreeding programme you can see here.

The ocean surface rising will continue for hundreds of years without regard to the fact whether we will manage to vastly decrease emissions and this way also global temperatures. In that case it would be at least possible to slow the rising down. This was stated by American and Australian scientists who were cited by Reuters Agency.

Many researches about climate development show greenhouse gases emission rising is a cause of the rising of an average surface temperature of the world seas of 0.17 degrees Celsius every ten years and also a cause of the surface rising of 2.3 mm between the years 2005 and 2010.

The surfaces rising as a consequence of polar ice melting threatens one tenth of the world population living in low laid countries. The Carribean Islands, the Maledives and islands groups of the Asian Pacific are endangered.

More than 180 of the world countries hold talks about a new global climate agreement which is to come into force in 2020 and which is to ensure average global warming in this century will be kept under two degrees Celsius. That is, according to the scientists, a minimal demand if catastrophic consequences of global warming should be turned away.

But even if the most ambitious emission restriction were got through, it would not be sufficient to stop the sea surface rising which will, in the opinion of the scientists, in any case continue even after 2100. Growing temperatures actually penetrate deep into the seas where the water gets warmer and after that it makes also the upper layers warmer over a long period.

The scientists have counted up that even if we managed to slightly decrease global temperatures gradually with getting the most strict measures through, the ocean surface would rise of more than 14 centimetres by 2100. On the contrary, if only minimal measures against global warming are carried out, the sea surface could rise of more than 32 centimetres.

“New findings of the scientists show how complicated natural processes are and how difficult it is for us to stop the forces we have put in motion,“ commented the research results Dalibor Dostál, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation.

Not from 1st September we will have a reason to a complete satisfaction. Classic bulbs have been actually replaced by compact fluorescent lamps for the most part on the market. And these contain dangerous mercury. It poses danger for the environment and for human health.

That is why scientists from Fraunhofer Wilhelm Klauditz institute in Germany warned some time ago that CFL bulbs pose a health hazard especially for children and the pregnant. During the tests they found out that the mercury concentration in the air after a fluorescent lamp breaking up exceeds the permitted limits up to twenty times. Other doctors point out that fluorescent lamps can cause a rash at sensitive patients.

In addition, experience from the first years of CFL bulbs using have shown that the saving effect is smaller than it was originally supposed. Their lifespan is shorter than the original estimations stated. And what is more, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK has found out that CFL bulbs loose up to 40 per cent of their luminosity after several years of being used.

European Wildlife Society therefore has sent a letter to Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, and to Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, in which we asked them to declare a ban on selling and producing of light sources containing mercury in the EU countries by the end of the year 2014.

“At present there are enough safe alternatives of saving light sources which do not contain any dangerous mercury on the market,“ stated to the proposal Dalibor Dostál, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation. LED lights are an alternative, for example. Although their price is higher than the price of CFL bulbs, but after putting a mass production into practice, it could fall sharply.

An example can be a branch of television screens. There the industry managed very quickly to replace the first generation of LCD displays containing dangerous mercury by greatly more saving LED displays which do not contain mercury. Their price is today much lower than the price of classic LCD displays.

Mercury is a very dangerous substance. When being let out into the environment mercury poses a serious risk. It is able to travel long distances and to contaminate water and soil even thousands of kilometres far from the source of pollution. It poses a risk mainly for human nerve system.

But in fact only a small part of CFL bulbs is recycled after their lifespan is finished. For example, from the data for the Czech Republic it emerges that 60 per cent of CFL bulbs containing mercury do not go through recycling and they end up in common waste where they can contaminate the environment.

Especially a project of European Centre of Biodiversity and projects dealing with the return of animals which, in the past, became extinct, into Central European nature –  particularly  European bisons, wild bees or wild cats.

Janez Potočnik, environmental commissioner, in the very same issue of magazine introduced his visions on conservation of wild animals in Europe. European Commissioner for agriculture and rural development Dacian Ciolos focused on the subject of sustainable development in agriculture. Other environmental articles focused on the conservation of nature in polar regions, project Eurochamp-2 exploring climate change and air pollution or the Tara Oceans Expedition studying  plankton. “It is a great pleasure for us to be able to  present our project in such fine company,” says Dalibor Dostal, the director of conservation organization European Wildlife.

Pan European Networks: Science & Technology is distributed to over 250,000 key European figures, including policy makers, legislators, influential academics and leading industrialists, the publication covers not only advances in scientific discovery but the important supporting frameworks that drives forward European science.