Cattle Populations in Relation to their Ecological Environment

Abstract

Before the advent of systematic agriculture and stock raising, some 6 000 years ago, cattle were just another of the large number of species competing for survival and expansion in a completely natural environment. Their place was probably a minor one in most areas of Europe. As a species poorly endowed for defence as individuals, their best opportunities lay in development in large groups or herds. This would have required extensive areas of relatively open grassland, and most of Western Europe was heavily forested, at least in the interval from the last ice age to the beginnings of settled agriculture.