Bos primigenius in Britain: or, why do fairy cows have red ears?

Bearing these points in mind, let us return to the Chillingham myth. I use the term "myth" advisedly, to mean not "falsehood" but a belief deeply held and symbolically meaningful although not necessarily rooted in scientific "truth." The story one hears during a visit to the cattle park, and in many of the nineteenth-century accounts, is virtually a sacred origin myth. The basic account that the Chillingham Wild Cattle Association presents to the public, in evident good faith, is that aurochsen migrated over the land bridge to roam prehistoric Britain until they gradually died out in all but the most thickly forested and inaccessible regions. They dwindled finally into a few herds of wild northern beasts, one of which was enclosed at Chillingham in the thirteenth century. For example, during the park tour, the warden stresses that they did not come on Viking longboats. Similarly, the Association's long-standing, but sadly late, president, the Hon. Ian Bennet, has stated categorically (in private correspondence) that the cattle have been proven by blood-typing to be unrelated to Roman cattle and must therefore antedate the Romans. The Dowager Countess of Tankerville, who is the Association's patron, has also written an information leaflet in which she says:

   the shape of the skull and the manner in which the horns grow out from it
   are similar to the Aurochs (bos primogenius [sic]) and quite different from
   the skull of the Roman importation (bos longifrons). It is thought by many
   therefore that the Chillingham Wild Cattle are the direct descendants of
   the original ox which roamed these islands before the dawn of history.

The three things constantly stressed by the Association, both in publications and in general information given to tourists by the warden, are that the cattle are always white, have never been domesticated, and are related to the aurochs in some more direct way than are modern breeds. Their wildness and the mystery surrounding their ancient origin are highlighted even in the physical approach to the park. In the film Jurassic Park, the visitors enter on a narrow road with electric security fences on either side and, although no dinosaurs appear for about ten minutes, there is a gradual build-up of expectation as the people move further in between high walls of vegetation. Chillingham Wild Cattle Park is a bit like that. Notices advise that the cattle are dangerous and that one must stay on the path, which starts off with a long climb through the woods and then emerges onto high pasture. There are wire fences on either side and there is no way of telling where the wild cattle might be. Finally, one reaches a hut where the warden comes to start the tour and tell the tale of the origin of the cattle. [8]

Problems with the Chillingham Origin Myth

So, what is strange about the Chillingham story? Obviously, the theory that aurochsen survived down the ages is incredible. The insistence that the animals must be pre-Roman is also unfounded. There have indeed been genetic studies which suggest that the Chillingham cattle are not related to Roman stock and there is no historical record of substantial Roman importation of cattle into Britain. However, this lack of relationship to Roman cattle does not at all prove that they are pre-Roman; they can equally well be post-Roman. The scientific-sounding information in the Countess's leaflet is misleading. Bos longifrons is a now-defunct term that used to be applied to the small Iron Age cattle kept by the British before and during the Roman period. It is now accepted that all humpless domestic cattle are of a single species, Bos taurus, and that they all descend ultimately from the aurochs, Bos primigenius. In other words, since the Chillingham cattle, wherever they came from, cannot be aurochsen, they must be Bos taurus just like Jerseys or Herefords or any other breed. They do look more like miniature aurochsen, but that is because they have not been selectively bred for beef or milk, and cattle that have been left to their own devices will tend to revert to ancestral type. Although both the late president and the patron have quoted genetic work done on the cattle to support their arguments, the zoological reports in fact make it quite clear that the Chillingham herd does not have any special relationship to the aurochs whatsoever (Hall 1982-3, 96; 1991, 540).