Spanish Fighting Bull

As a Spanish fighting cattle ( toro de lidia ) are referred to various Iberian cattle breeds. One of the breeding objectives of these races is special aggressiveness. The bulls are used for bull fighting. The Spanish struggle is beef, together with some other original breeds of cattle, a particular phenotypic proximity to the aurochs, the ancestor of most domestic cattle, attests.

Origin and distribution area

The combat bark is used in Spain, Portugal, southern France and parts of Latin America. Particularly in the West and Southwest of the Iberian peninsula you find these bovine. The Spanish fighting cattle can look back on a long history. It is believed that it dates back to domestic cattle that were introduced by Celtic tribes. Likely Between the 8th and 15th centuries between the Muslim and the Christian part of the Iberian Peninsula, a kind of no man's land to be developed, lived in the larger stocks of semi-wild cattle. From these, the most aggressive bulls were always chosen for the bullfights. A herd of these animals is first attested in the 14th century by texts from the Kingdom of Navarre. During the 18th century, was bred targeted. We chose the herds, which originally served primarily of meat production, the most appropriate animals and bred them specifically for different forms of bullfighting. This resulted in several lines, some of which differ greatly from each other. Analyzes of mitochondrial DNA suggest that the Spanish fighting cattle are more closely related to aurochs southern Europe or other European domestic cattle, as with aurochs North and Central Europe. In addition, the battle beef to a small extent also carry DNA haplotypes that are likely to arise in Africa. Overall, these phenotypically very diverse cattle form is also characterized by a great deal of genetic diversity. Whether the Spanish fighting cattle attributable primarily to domestic cattle that were originally domesticated in the Near East, or on cattle that have been domesticated independently in the Iberian Peninsula, is unclear.

Appearance and Description

In appearance these animals resemble quite strongly the wild form of the domestic cattle, the extinct aurochs. To assign combat cattle on an athletic body shape with a slender waist, curved topline and very pronounced shoulder and neck region. The legs are often long. The skull is disproportionately large and langschnauzig, he bears the sweeping forward horns. These are similar to those of the aurochs in several respects: first, they are at a 60 ° angle to the skull, as in the original, and usually they have a very similar or identical curvature. Even the color have some wild animals fighting properties, so the bulls are mostly black and colored reddish brown cows. Often a lighter dorsal stripe and a white- edged muzzle is present, as was the case with the aurochs. The skull of the bulls usually wears ruffled forelocks, their color palette can range from blond to black on reddish brown bishin. All these features make the Spanish fighting cattle to one of the Aurochs artigsten modern cattle Assen. As a result of breeding, it is, however, also individuals with differing characteristics. The breed is kleinrahmig, full-grown bulls reach 500 to 650 kg.

Breeding lines

The Black fighting bull is bred for 500 years, the breed goes back to ancient Celtic land punches. The minimum weight for a fight is 460 kg. Most bulls are used at the age of 5 or 6 years. Younger bulls ( Novillos ) are used in battles with young heroes. From the Toro de Lidia, the Spanish fighting bull, there are several breeding lines, which may differ with respect to their proportions or coloring. However, the wild colored battle cattle are in the majority.

The main breeding lines are:

• Cabrera
• Gallardo
• Miura
• Navarra
• Vazqueña
• Vistahermosa

Historical fighting bulls

• " Gordito "
• " Civilón "
• " Islero "
• " Murciélago "