The park and its animals

The Tarpan is a hardy, hardy horse that disappeared during the 19th century. Some
specialists consider the Tarpan to be the ancestor of today's domestic horses.

Represented in numerous Palaeolithic caves, the steppe bison disappeared after the
last Ice Age. However, it is the direct ancestor of a North American species, which is divided into two
subspecies: the plains bison and the wood bison.

Przewalski's horse still exists in the wild and is a cousin of the horses depicted in
Palaeolithic caves. Some specialists believe it to be a surviving species of prehistoric wild horse, while
others believe it to be descended from the very first domesticated horses.

The Highland cow is the oldest registered cattle breed in the world. Very hardy and
requiring little care, the Highland cow can adapt to difficult environments and very harsh climates.

While reindeer was the dominant game in Palaeolithic Périgord, deer were hunted more
in the Iberian Peninsula. The Lascaux cave is famous for its figurations of deer, including the Deer
Frieze.

The aurochs is the ancestor of our domestic cattle like the cow and the zebu. The
representations of this animal in the Lascaux caves are among the most impressive in French cave art,
reaching up to 5 metres in length for the largest.

The wolf is the first animal domesticated by humans. The first proven cases of
domestication date back at least 15,000 years to south-western Europe, but our cohabitation with this
species goes back much further.

The Alpine ibex is the most represented animal in cave art, after the horse and the bison.
There are 35 of them in the Lascaux cave, probably males, as the size of their horns suggests.

Figures of fallow deer are rare in Eurasian Palaeolithic art. At the end of this period, these
animals were more common in the Middle East, where they were an important source of meat for local
populations.