DNA study pins Scandinavian aurochs extinction on multiple squeezes at once

A study published in The Holocene and widely covered on 10 October 2026 reconstructs how the aurochs - the massive wild cattle immortalised in cave paintings and the ancestor of today's cows - vanished from Scandinavia thousands of years before their global extinction. An international team led by Lund University analysed ancient DNA from aurochs bones alongside pollen and archaeological records to show that the Scandinavian population suffered a severe genetic bottleneck, then was ground down by a combination of climate-driven forest change, human hunting and habitat fragmentation. Their final global disappearance - the last known aurochs died in a Polish forest in 1627 - was the end of an 8,000-year slide. The researchers warn that modern conservation efforts focused only on stopping hunting may fail where populations have already lost most of their genetic diversity and seen their habitats cut up. The story landed as the top wildlife-genetics headline of the day on BBC Discover Wildlife, SciTechDaily, phys.org and Archaeology Magazine, and tied neatly to current debates over 'de-extinction' and rewilding of large herbivores.