The animals that roam Poland The animals that roam Poland's Bialowieza forest recall those drawn in the Cave of Lascaux in France some 17,000 years ago. Tarpans, as the ancient equines of Europe were known, appeared in a British encyclopedia in the mid-1800s but disappeared from the planet in 1887. Later, a Nazi biologist started experimenting.

Click image for more photos / R. & M. Kosinski / www.kosinscy.pl

Galloping Ghosts

In Poland's primeval forest, a Nazi scientist re-created an extinct breed of horse. Or did he?

  • By Diane Ackerman
  • Smithsonian magazine, November 2007

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    The animals that roam Poland

    Galloping Ghosts

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    During the ice age, when glaciers blanketed northern Europe and a wind-ripped tundra stretched down to the Mediterranean countryside, thick forests and fertile meadows gave refuge to the wild horses that roamed the Central European lowlands, browsed the East European steppes and galloped across Asia and the Americas. In the fifth century B.C., Herodotus wrote of how much he enjoyed watching herds grazing in the bogs and marshes of what is now Poland. For ages, these horses, called tarpans, outwitted hunters and survived, but by the 18th century not many remained, in part because diners prized tarpan meat—it was sweet, but more appealingly, it was scarce—and in part because tarpans had interbred with farm horses to produce fertile offspring. In 1879, pursued by humans, the last wild, pure tarpan mare fell down a crevasse in Ukraine and died; the last captive died eight years later in a Moscow zoo.

    At that point the species officially became extinct, just one more chapter in the annals of life on earth. Yet in Bialowieza, a forest straddling the border between Belarus and Poland, tarpans apparently still graze.

    Bialowieza (pronounced bya-woe-VYE-zha) is the only fragment of primeval lowland forest preserved in all of Europe, an ecosystem Poles call a puszcza, a word evoking ancient woodlands undefiled by man or woman. Historically, it served as a hunting retreat for kings and czars (who kept an ornate lodge there), but by World War II, it had fallen under the purview of scientists, politicians and poachers. The rapid decline of the largest land animals in Europe—European (or "forest") bison—helped to kindle Poland's conservation movement after the war.

    In a small reserve at the edge of the woods, time seems to evaporate as a herd of horses graze on marsh grass beneath colossal pine trees and a dazzling blue sky. On frosty mornings, they browse inside bubbles of steam and leave a sweet leathery odor behind them, invisible clouds above jumbled hoofprints. Spring through fall, the horses live unaided by humans, wading in the ponds and grazing on bushes, tree branches, algae and grass. In winter, they paw the snow to find dry grass or rotting apples, and rangers of the mounted Horse Guard sometimes provide hay and salt; well-muscled, the horses have little fat to insulate them, so they grow shaggy, easily matted coats. It is then that they most resemble the horses painted on the cave walls at prehistoric sites throughout France's Loire Valley.

    They're strikingly beautiful creatures: dun with a black stripe down the back and a dark mane. Although they have long ears and large, thick necks, they are lightly built and fast. Unlike more domestic horses, their coats lighten in winter, just as those of ermine and arctic hares do, blending in with the landscape. Then ice clots like marbles in their manes and tails. Still, they thrive on harsh weather and poor diet; and, although the stallions battle fiercely, with bared teeth and thwacking necks, they heal quickly.

    How did these lost-in-time animals get here?

    For years leading up to World War II, German zoologists pursued a fantastic goal: the resurrection of extinct species. Genetic technologies wouldn't emerge until the 1970s (and in any event remain insufficient for this purpose), but one such zoologist, Lutz Heck, decided to use a traditional method of breeding animals to emphasize specific traits. Heck's reasoning went like this: even an extinct animal's genes remain in the gene pool of closely related living species, so if he concentrated the genes by breeding animals that most resembled their extinct antecedents, in time he would re-create their ancestral forms. He was wrong—not all the genes survive, so extinct species cannot be revived through breeding—but the war gave him an excuse to loot East European zoos for the best specimens to mate with several wild strains, hoping to breed back to pure "Aryan" animals the fierce creatures painted in ocher on Cro-Magnon caves. What better totems for the Third Reich?

    Before the war ended, Heck shipped back many of his back-bred, look-alike tarpans to idyllic Bialowieza, where he pictured Adolf Hitler's inner circle hunting in the new millennium. After the war, the care and breeding of the animals, and the stewardship of Poland's part of the forest, returned to Polish hands.

    During the ice age, when glaciers blanketed northern Europe and a wind-ripped tundra stretched down to the Mediterranean countryside, thick forests and fertile meadows gave refuge to the wild horses that roamed the Central European lowlands, browsed the East European steppes and galloped across Asia and the Americas. In the fifth century B.C., Herodotus wrote of how much he enjoyed watching herds grazing in the bogs and marshes of what is now Poland. For ages, these horses, called tarpans, outwitted hunters and survived, but by the 18th century not many remained, in part because diners prized tarpan meat—it was sweet, but more appealingly, it was scarce—and in part because tarpans had interbred with farm horses to produce fertile offspring. In 1879, pursued by humans, the last wild, pure tarpan mare fell down a crevasse in Ukraine and died; the last captive died eight years later in a Moscow zoo.

    At that point the species officially became extinct, just one more chapter in the annals of life on earth. Yet in Bialowieza, a forest straddling the border between Belarus and Poland, tarpans apparently still graze.

    Bialowieza (pronounced bya-woe-VYE-zha) is the only fragment of primeval lowland forest preserved in all of Europe, an ecosystem Poles call a puszcza, a word evoking ancient woodlands undefiled by man or woman. Historically, it served as a hunting retreat for kings and czars (who kept an ornate lodge there), but by World War II, it had fallen under the purview of scientists, politicians and poachers. The rapid decline of the largest land animals in Europe—European (or "forest") bison—helped to kindle Poland's conservation movement after the war.

    In a small reserve at the edge of the woods, time seems to evaporate as a herd of horses graze on marsh grass beneath colossal pine trees and a dazzling blue sky. On frosty mornings, they browse inside bubbles of steam and leave a sweet leathery odor behind them, invisible clouds above jumbled hoofprints. Spring through fall, the horses live unaided by humans, wading in the ponds and grazing on bushes, tree branches, algae and grass. In winter, they paw the snow to find dry grass or rotting apples, and rangers of the mounted Horse Guard sometimes provide hay and salt; well-muscled, the horses have little fat to insulate them, so they grow shaggy, easily matted coats. It is then that they most resemble the horses painted on the cave walls at prehistoric sites throughout France's Loire Valley.

    They're strikingly beautiful creatures: dun with a black stripe down the back and a dark mane. Although they have long ears and large, thick necks, they are lightly built and fast. Unlike more domestic horses, their coats lighten in winter, just as those of ermine and arctic hares do, blending in with the landscape. Then ice clots like marbles in their manes and tails. Still, they thrive on harsh weather and poor diet; and, although the stallions battle fiercely, with bared teeth and thwacking necks, they heal quickly.

    How did these lost-in-time animals get here?

    For years leading up to World War II, German zoologists pursued a fantastic goal: the resurrection of extinct species. Genetic technologies wouldn't emerge until the 1970s (and in any event remain insufficient for this purpose), but one such zoologist, Lutz Heck, decided to use a traditional method of breeding animals to emphasize specific traits. Heck's reasoning went like this: even an extinct animal's genes remain in the gene pool of closely related living species, so if he concentrated the genes by breeding animals that most resembled their extinct antecedents, in time he would re-create their ancestral forms. He was wrong—not all the genes survive, so extinct species cannot be revived through breeding—but the war gave him an excuse to loot East European zoos for the best specimens to mate with several wild strains, hoping to breed back to pure "Aryan" animals the fierce creatures painted in ocher on Cro-Magnon caves. What better totems for the Third Reich?

    Before the war ended, Heck shipped back many of his back-bred, look-alike tarpans to idyllic Bialowieza, where he pictured Adolf Hitler's inner circle hunting in the new millennium. After the war, the care and breeding of the animals, and the stewardship of Poland's part of the forest, returned to Polish hands.

    What is so awe-inspiring about this landscape that it could bewitch people from many cultures and eras? For starters, it contains 500-year-old oak trees, as well as soaring pine, spruce and elm rising like citadels hundreds of feet tall. In addition to its throwback tarpans, it boasts a multitude of other species, from one-celled protozoans to boar, elk, lynx, wolf, moose and bison. Beavers, martens, weasels, badgers and ermine glide through the marshes and woods, while Pomeranian eagles share the skies with bats, goshawks, tawny owls and black storks. The air smells of balsam and pine needles, sphagnum moss and heather, berries and mushrooms, marshy meadows and peat bogs. Small wonder the preserve has been named a World Heritage site.

    Because it is closed to hunters, loggers and motorized vehicles of any sort, the preserve is the last refuge of unique flora and fauna. Park rangers guide tiny groups of hikers along designated paths, where they're forbidden to litter, smoke or even speak above a whisper. Nothing may be removed. If a ranger needs to carry something into the park, he transports it by rubber-tired horse cart; if he needs to move a fallen tree, he uses a handsaw and workhorses.

    Ironically, the breeding experiments that thrived with Heck's ambitions helped to save scores of rare plants and endangered animals. But understand-ably bitter about Heck's Nazi ties and motives, Polish patriots were (and still are) quick to point out that these "tarpans" are technically counterfeits, like the descendants of the Heck-bred aurochsen, or wild oxen, on display elsewhere in Europe. Some zoologists, who prefer to speak of "near-tarpans" and "near-aurochsen," associate the animals with political agendas. They paint Heck as a con man who staged a colossal Nazi hoax by creating new breeds, not resurrecting extinct species. But Herman Reichenbach, in International Zoo News, envisions an important role for the pseudo-throwbacks: "They can still help preserve a natural environment of mixed forest and meadows.... And as a feral type of cattle, the aurochsen may also be able to enhance the gene pool of a domestic animal that has become impoverished genetically."

    There are many forms of obsession, some diabolical, some fortuitous. Strolling through Bialowieza's mass of life, one would never guess its political dramas, including the role it played in Nazi ambitions.

    Diane Ackerman has published several nonfiction books, including the best seller A Natural History of the Senses.

    Adapted from The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman. Copyright © 2007 by Diane Ackerman. With the permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.


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    Comments

    WOW this is amazing and very interesting. It is so sad to learn of any of God's creations going exinct. This whole preserve sounds like a wonderland to be treasured and protected always. What a delight it would be to slip quietly through these forests, observing all.

    Posted by Kristine Barnes on November 21,2007 | 12:58PM

    As I am a horse lover from 0ver 80 years of admiration of the species I find the story facinating and would love to see the area in person.

    Posted by Clarence E Williams on November 21,2007 | 02:10PM

    It would be a wonderful tale if only it was true that these specimen horses were an offspring of the originals. Too bad it took a tragedy such as the war to inspire someone to take action. It was a selfish deed, but the world may be luckier for it. I don't know if I am saying this in a politically correct way, so forgive me, please if this is offensive to anyone.

    Posted by marjorie yalowicki on November 21,2007 | 04:49PM

    Aren't these Przywalski's horses? Roger Williams, Boulder, Colorado.

    Posted by Roger A.C. Williams on November 21,2007 | 09:25PM

    most interesting

    Posted by moira p. rankin on November 22,2007 | 07:46AM

    waste of time.

    Posted by whyguy on November 23,2007 | 07:48AM

    Thanks for the most inteesting article. To think I almost passed it up.

    Posted by Ralph Albers on November 23,2007 | 11:25AM

    Firstly, Tarpans were not a distinct species, as they had "interbred with farm horses to produce fertile offspring." Secondly, considering Mendelian principles, there is no reason for concept behind back-breeding to be insinuated as fallacy. In humans, many have been astonished by the occurance of phenotypically "white" offspring of mixed black/white parents such as the case with Kylie Hodgson and Remi Horder(see http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/mixedtwins.asp). This is essentially the same concept. -Imagine emptying a bag of lime beans, kidney beans, and black beans all in a large bowl. Suppose the lima beans represented the Tarpan genes and the other two varieties represented the other strains that contributed to the domestic horse. Just because the lima beans were mixed with other beans does not mean that they are no longer lima beans, does it? Back-breeding is like trying to sort out the beans. Though it may be difficult enough to seem impossible, it isn't.- Thirdly, to dispute science because of who the scientists were is just bad ideology, if not outright bigotry. Nazi German science was hindered by excusing Jewish scientists and, parallel to them, our science is hindered by excusing Nazi scientists. The article is fascinating and extraordinary, however the author needs to read through it again and re-examine the extent of which those "political dramas" are used. Also, I am glad Roger Williams mentioned the Przewalski's horses and I feel that when mentioning the native European horses, both the Przewalski and Icelandic varieties need to be addressed alongside the Tarpans.

    Posted by David Lange on December 21,2007 | 10:11AM

    I am most interested in the extinct and near-extinct horse breeds as I am seeking information regarding the earliest evidence of grey horses. Scientists at the Animal Health Trust (Suffolk, U.K.) located the gene that gives grey horses their distinctive coat color. Through DNA testing they have traced all grey thoroughbreds back to Alcock's Arabian (around 1700). My research includes understanding why melanoma is common in grey horses. I've come across several theories that the Arabian breed evolved as a seperate subspecies but as the Bedouin desert tribes did not keep records I am searching for artifacts, such as textiles, on which grey horses are represented.

    Posted by Karen on January 28,2008 | 08:55PM

    Extinct= gone forever. We shouldn't be doing the Goddesses work. We are not gods. It's bad enough that we destroy the environment now we have to make our own species.

    Posted by Thomas on March 30,2008 | 01:16PM

    Przewalski's Horse is the last truly wild (never been bred for domesticated use)horse. They inhabit central Asia (Outer Mongolia).They were hunted to extinction in the wild in the latter 20th century. Horse lovers in the Netherlands coordinated the breeding of stock taken from the wild prior to that and kept them genetically pure. These people and institutions have now provided animals to re-establish the wild horse in its rugged last refuge near the edge of the Gobi Desert. The also-rugged Mongolian nomads are being given incentives not to bother the Takh (there name for Przewalski's Horse).The domrsticated horse has 64 chromosomes, the Przewalski's Horse has 66.The relationship between Przewalski's Horse and the extinct Tarpan is unclear. Both resemble horses pictured by early man on the walls of French and Spanish caves more than ten thousand years ago.

    Posted by Robin Smith on April 9,2008 | 11:55AM

    Dear Kristine, In response to the article on the Tarpan horses on the Smithsonian site. I refer interested persons to , the site that tells the story of my 16 year effort to save the Abaco Barb horses, DNA proven to be Spanish Barbs, struggling for survival on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. The horses were saved from extinction in the 1960�s. They came back. Due to factors explained on the site (all human) only eight are left. We are right down to the wire. This story is happening right now. I hope that you will explore the site, and get in touch with us. Sincerely, Milanne (Mimi) Rehor Arkwild, Inc (a U.S. 501 charity W.H.O.A., wild Horses Of Abaco Preservation Society

    Posted by Milanne Rehor on June 9,2008 | 04:39PM

    I am extremely interested in the genentic diversity of animals that tend to be sloughed off as not worthy of attention because they or their relatives have been or are "domesticated." At least many Americans seem to be open minded about this, perhaps because of our heroic visions of the American Mustang. (Not that many aren't killed every year in slaughter houses to this day.) But how many Americans know about the Florida Cracker Cow or the Florida Cracker horse? I would bet even less care about the fate of the Royal Palm turkey, a beautiful small turkey breed which is for the most part white with black highlights, their heads often "blushing" sky blue. Considering the plight of the Abaco Barb - I think they are worthy of our attention, before like the Passenger Pigeon we are left to watch the last one die alone.

    Posted by Madeline Gutierrez on January 13,2009 | 11:27AM

    Thousands of god's creations have been hunted to extinction by man but it is good to know that some of the species can be brought again to this beautiful world.

    Posted by ISHAAN SARKAR on May 13,2009 | 11:42AM

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