Heinz Heck (22 January 1894 – 5 March 1982) was a German

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and director of Hellabrunn Zoo (''Tierpark Hellabrunn'') in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and died in

. With his brother,

Lutz Heck Ludwig Georg Heinrich Heck, called Lutz Heck (23 April 1892 in Berlin, German Empire – 6 April 1983 in Wiesbaden, West Germany) was a German zoologist, animal researcher, animal book author and director of the Berlin Zoological Garden where he ...

, who was director of the

Berlin Zoological Garden The Berlin Zoological Garden (, ) is the oldest surviving and best-known zoo in Germany. Opened in 1844, it covers and is located in Berlin's Tiergarten (park), Tiergarten. With about 1,380 different species and over 20,200 animals, the zoo pre ...

, he worked on two

breeding back Breeding back is a form of artificial selection by the deliberate selective breeding of domestication, domestic (but not exclusively) animals, in an attempt to achieve an animal breed with a phenotype that resembles a wild type ancestor, usually ...

projects to recreate extinct species. The Heck horse aimed to recreate the

tarpan The tarpan (''Equus ferus ferus'') was a free-ranging horse population of the Eurasian steppe from the 18th to the 20th century. What qualifies as a tarpan is subject to debate; it is unclear whether tarpans were genuine wild horses, feral domest ...

, and the

Heck cattle The Heck or Munich-Berlin is a German list of cattle breeds, breed or type of domestic cattle. It was bred in the 1920s by Heinz and Lutz Heck in an attempt to breeding back, breed back the extinct aurochs (''Bos primigenius''). Controversy re ...

, aimed to recreate the

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius''; or ; pl.: aurochs or aurochsen) is an extinct species of Bovini, bovine, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of t ...

, the wild cattle of the European forest. This work has been criticised on grounds that once an animal is extinct, it cannot re-exist. This was contrary to Heck's view, which is that while genes of an extinct animal still exist in

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

descendants, the animal could still be recreated. Under Nazi Germany, Heinz Heck was among the first political prisoners to be interned—and later released—in Dachau for suspected membership in the Communist Party and for his brief marriage to a Jewish woman. Heck also played an important part in saving the

European bison The European bison (: bison) (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bi ...

(wisent) from extinction when the majority of its population of about 90 survived in captivity in Germany following great losses to the species during World War I. To help manage the survival of the European bison from the remaining captive population, he commenced the first

studbook A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry, the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders w ...

for a non-domestic species, initially as a card index in 1923, leading to a full publication in 1932. Thanks to Heck's efforts, the European bison population has significantly increased and the species has been re-released into the wild.

References

External links

Wang, Michael: "Heavy Breeding". ''Cabinet'', Spring 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heck, Heinz 1894 births 1982 deaths Scientists from Berlin 20th-century German zoologists Zoo directors Dachau concentration camp survivors Communist Party of Germany members

Further reading

References

External links