Home, Home on the Range Modern Day Aurochs Roam
Once the glens rang to the sound of some wild and pretty hefty cattle called aurochs a breed of fearsome giants that were the ancestor of our modern cows and bulls. Now with the trend for re-wilding and even bringing species back from extinction it’s sort of going to happen to the auroch. Did you know there are plans to bring back dodos from DNA samples and woolly mammoths too, it’s a wild west out there. There are plans a foot to redo the role of the auroch by bringing in a specially bred kind of cattle similar to them called the long-horned tauros from the Netherlands.
A re-wilding charity is planning to introduce a herd of some 15 of the tauros to an estate near Loch Ness, let’s hope they don’t scare Nessie, and increase the biodiversity of the area. This will in some way fill the niche that the auroch fulfilled in the glens. Those ancient aurochs were mighty beasties and only surpassed in weight by the aforesaid woolly mammoths and the woolly rhinoceros that disappeared from these parts around 16,000 years ago, give or take a thousand years. These future denizens of the glens are about a third bigger than Highland cattle and have been back bred to ancient dimensions. This for a while gave them a problem with temperament. Nobody wants three tons of angry cows and bulls rampaging around, even if their manure regenerates wildlife. But the charity doing the work insists tauros are mere gentle giants.
Now for those who won’t be wandering the glens looking out for non-native unaggressive cattle I have a simple solution to the problem of Christmas, yes that’s the first time I have mentioned this dreaded word this year! And that solution is a native species of gift provider which has been on these isles since 1890 when James Pirie was founded in St Andrews. And we have wagged our tail and scratched our ears to come up with some belting bargains. Would you like 60% off? You would, then how about a prize of 2 Flower of Scotland Thistle Footed Whisky Glasses from Royal Scot Crystal all presented in a luxury gift box, with free delivery and free gift wrapping at checkout when you tick the option? Yes that’s all it takes. The description says it’s decorated with British hand cut raised diamonds and a hand cut Flower of Scotland Thistle design. And this beauty of a whisky glass has a flared shaped lip and a tall bowl allowing the full depth and complexity of the sophisticated single malt whisky to be savoured and enjoyed perfectly. Jings, that’s great!
