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A British beast rarer than the panda

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(Image credit: Stephen Hall)

By Daniel Stables 16th September 2021

Chillingham Castle is home to one of the world's last remaining herds of wild
cattle, whose gene pool is so isolated that every animal is essentially a genetic
clone.

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"The good news is, if they charge us, you don't have to outrun them. You just have to outrun
the person next to you," said Denene Crossley, one of the two sisters who serve as wardens
of these strange and rare beasts.
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Ill-tempered, unpredictable and capable of a not-exactly-leisurely top speed of 30mph,
Chillingham wild cattle are not to be trifled with. Crossley and I were observing the
animals from a safe distance, amid the sloping meadows and ancient oak and alder forests
of Chillingham Cattle Park in Northumberland, where they have roamed free from human
interference for the better part of 1,000 years.

White as snow, with sinewy frames, a fierce temperament and vast horns that curve
menacingly into jet-black tips, these are no ordinary oxen. Among the last remaining wild
cattle in the world, they retain a primeval character. They are also some of the rarest
animals on the planet; currently numbering around 130, they are far fewer in number than
giant pandas, Siberian tigers or mountain gorillas.

"Although there are about 1.2 billion cattle in the world, only very few – on a few oceanic
islands, and at Chillingham – live free of human interference or management," explained
Stephen Hall, professor of animal science at the University of Lincoln and a trustee of the
Chillingham Wild Cattle Association. "They are the only British breed of cattle to have
escaped 'improvement' by selective breeding during the so-called Agricultural Revolution of
approximately 200 to 300 years ago."

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In general body size and shape they are, effectively, medieval

cattle
This is evident in their small stature – the bulls weigh in at around 400kg, less than one-
third that of modern continental breeds – and in the cows' small udders, which only have to
produce milk for one calf at a time. "In general body size and shape they are, effectively,
medieval cattle," said Hall.

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Chillingham Castle is said to be the most haunted castle in Britain (Credit: Chillingham Castle)

It was the medieval fervour for blood sports that meant the Chillingham cattle were
originally enclosed in the park around 800 years ago – and left to live in a wild state. "They
were treated like a large game animal," explained Crossley. "The residents of Chillingham
Castle would have come across on horseback with packs of hounds and lances, and they
would have chased them through the park. That's why they were kept wild in the first place
– they wanted that fight-or-flight response."

The cattle's spectral form fits in perfectly against the backdrop of the castle, located next to
the cattle park but now under separate ownership and said to be the most haunted castle in
Britain. Dave Godfrey, a tour guide in one of the castle's opulent state rooms, spoke of
disembodied voices that babble incoherently in the chapel, ghouls flitting across moonlit
courtyards and a frail figure who approaches guests in the pantry, begging them for water.

"Then there's the Blue Boy, who heard some wrongdoings being plotted and was encased in
a wall while he was still alive," said Godfrey.

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Reports of a ghostly boy seen in the castle's Pink Room were just another part of the
estate's folkloric fabric, until workmen in the 1920s made an unexpected discovery while
excavating a wall. "They found the remains of a boy, with the bones on his fingers worn
down. They gave him a Christian burial, and his ghost hasn't been seen since." My girlfriend
and I couldn't resist the opportunity to spend the night in the castle's old guard room,
although we didn't experience anything spooky. Nor has Godfrey, in several years of working
there. "I frighten the ghosts off, I think," he said with a chuckle.

The Chillingham cattle's characteristics may have been frozen in time in the medieval era,
but theories as to their earlier origins are manifold and colourful. A 2nd-Century terracotta
oil lamp, depicting a bovine with a curly forelock like that of the Chillingham breed, was
found on the grounds of the castle. The discovery ignited speculation that the Romans,
known for their religious veneration of white animals, might have sacrificed Chillingham
cattle in the Mithraic temples along nearby Hadrian's Wall.

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Due to centuries of inbreeding, Chillingham wild cattle are genetic clones that all look identical
(Credit: Stephen Hall)

The New York Times attributed an even more ancient sacrificial importance to the cattle,
positing that they emerged after pre-Roman Celtic druids attempted, through "a process of
segregation and selective slaughter", to engineer an all-white version of the aurochs, the
wild progenitor of all modern cattle species, for use in religious rituals.

The theory that the Chillingham cattle are the last relic of aurochs herds that once widely
roamed Britain's woodlands is seductive but misguided. "All modern-day European cattle
were created as a result of domesticating the aurochs when man started farming thousands
of years ago," explained Ellie Waddington, Crossley's sister and fellow cattle warden. "I
wouldn't describe the Chillingham cattle as any more closely related to them than any other
modern breed, but they do give us a real insight into how the aurochs may have behaved.
The herd structure, the psychology, the mating rituals and so on – nowhere else can you see
and study a truly natural herd structure."

Unusually compared to dairy breeds, the Chillingham herd have a 50/50 gender split, and
they produce young year-round. Competition among the males is fierce, bloody and
occasionally fatal; as these are wild animals, the wardens let nature run its course. "Eye
injuries, broken ribs, puncture wounds – we have no veterinary intervention at all," said
Crossley. "That doesn't sit right with everyone, but they're wild animals; they don't want our
help."

The limit of human involvement is leaving hay for the animals in the harsh winters and
putting them out of their misery if they are sick or injured beyond the point of recovery. It's
just as well that the cattle all look identical, so it's impossible to identify individuals. "Given
that the only way we can assist them if they're suffering is to shoot them, it's best not to be
on a first-name basis," said Crossley.

The reason for their homogeneity is centuries of inbreeding, to the point that the cattle are
essentially genetic clones. The damaging effects of inbreeding are well known – many
scientific studies have shown that it causes animal populations to be more prone to birth
defects and infectious diseases than those that draw on a wide gene pool. If you've ever
seen a Habsburg jaw gurning down at you from one of the great portrait halls of Europe,
you'll know that it's not a good idea in humans, either.

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Chillingham wild cattle are known to have a fierce and unpredictable temperament (Credit: Daniel
Stables)

Ordinarily, inbreeding causes populations to die out, but, by a quirk of evolutionary fate, it
has had the opposite effect in the Chillingham cattle – a trait unique in the natural world.
"Being isolated, they've managed to essentially purify their gene pool through inbreeding,
to the point where they're natural clones of each other and there's not enough diversity to
cause harmful mutations," explained Crossley. "It goes against everything we know about
inbreeding." The cattle themselves take steps to maintain this genetic equilibrium. "The last
calf to be born with a mutation was about 20 years ago, and it was missing its tail. The
mother abandoned it and it died within about 24 hours, and that was it. Whatever caused
that mutation didn't get passed on."

They've managed to essentially purify their gene pool through

inbreeding, to the point where they're natural clones of each
other
If that sounds cruel, maybe it's because the Chillingham cattle have learned the lessons of
survival the hard way, with the herd having nearly died out on several occasions. "They were
down to five bulls and eight cows in the harsh winter of early 1947," said Hall. "The main
threat facing them, though, is diseases, such as foot-and-mouth." That very illness almost
saw off the cattle in 1967, getting within two miles of the park; any closer and the cattle
would have been culled. That prompted the establishment of a backup herd in a secret
location in Scotland and a store of frozen embryos.

For now, though, the herd is thriving. The population is at its biggest since record-keeping
began at the behest of Charles Darwin in the 19th Century; and Waddington has christened
the latest cohort of young bulls "The Hoodies" for their boisterous disregard for their elders.
Modern visitors to the park are confronted with a sight unchanged since the medieval era: a
population of rare genetic outliers, living in a wild state as they have done for hundreds of
years. Just don't get too close.

Hidden Britain is a BBC Travel series that uncovers the most wonderful and curious of what
Britain has to offer, by exploring quirky customs, feasting on unusual foods and unearthing
mysteries from the past and present.

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London's most authentic Indian food?

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(Image credit: Jansos/Alamy)

By Meera Dattani 9th September 2021

This unassuming street in north London is the city's original "Little India" – and
nowhere else captures the original South Asian experience quite like it.

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ou could easily miss Drummond Street. Just west of Euston Station in central

Y
London, it's an unassuming stretch of townhouses, basement flats, restaurants
and shops, easily walked in a couple of minutes.
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 But look closer, and almost every restaurant and store is South Asian. Menus feature South
Indian masala dosa (spiced pancakes), Mumbai-style street food and Lahori lamb kebabs;
shop windows display South Asian sweets and savoury snacks; and there's enough spices,
pulses, pickles, pastes and flours to cater an Indian wedding.

Growing up in 1980s London, my family would come here looking for what the suburbs had
yet to offer. Today, more than 30 years on and sat in Diwana Bhel Poori House, probably the
UK's oldest South Indian vegetarian restaurant and a Drummond Street favourite since
1971, it feels like little has changed, from the wood-panelled interior to the paintings on the
wall. The food is still delicious – its chef for 30 years became the owner a decade ago and
also runs Chutney's restaurant, also on Drummond Street.

South Asians have lived in London since the mid-17th Century, when ships of the colonial
East India Company docked in the capital. However, most came in the middle of the 20th
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Century; many from post-Partition India, reading
Pakistan and Bangladesh to help rebuild post-war
Britain, work in the National Health Service or as students of the diaspora. The 1960s and
'70s saw the arrival of East African Asians mainly Punjabi or Gujarati like my family exiled

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