Chillingham Wild Cattle

We continued our "at home staycation" during Son#2's visit with a trip up into rural Northumberland to see the wild cattle at Chillingham. You can book a tour with a ranger who takes you to see them from a safe distance (seemingly they can run at 30 mph so it's best not to get too close!).

Getting decent photos required the use of my long lens again (for obvious reasons!). Naturally I took lots, but these two show a group of adults and some cute young calves play-fighting.

I already knew a little of the story of the cattle from a previous visit very many years ago but I learned much more this time from the very knowledgeable guide.

The Wild Cattle of Chillingham are said to be the only survivors of the wild herds which once roamed Britain’s forests. They live in a large enclosed estate next to the village of Chillingham. Apparently they were originally kept for shooting sport centuries ago, but have been left completely to their own devices for over 800 years. They never have any treatment - no drugs, "no nothing" - and there is no control over their breeding which all occurs naturally. The only significant intervention by humans is to bury their dead.

I was surprised to learn that the inevitable inbreeding has not caused any problems (the herd reduced to a minimum of only 13 animals during the hard winter of 1946-47 but now numbers many times that).

There is apparently a "reserve herd" in northwest Scotland, derived from a pair which was taken there some years ago, and they also keep some frozen embryos as a second backup as they are so valuable scientifically.

There's a lot more on Wikipedia here.