Paper short abstract:

In History of Quadrupeds, (1790: 25) Thomas Bewick wrote: ‘There was formerly a very singular species of wild cattle in this country, which is now nearly extinct. Numerous herds of them were kept in several parks in England and Scotland, but have been destroyed by various means; and the only breed now remaining in the kingdom, is in the park at Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland’ In this paper I wish to consider the still extant Chillingham cattle and the recent introduction of Galloway cattle as part of the Lake District re-wilding project known as Wild Ennerdale. Both breeds are native species and have medieval ancestries. In both instances they can be seen as co-workers within a larger system. Not bred for meat, instead they help maintain the spaces they inhabit and with as little human intervention as possible. They are also representatives of an almost mythical past in which aurochs (Bos primigenius) roamed freely in the forests, in stark contrast to contemporary industrialised farming

Paper long abstract:

The feral cattle at Chillingham (first mentioned 1225-1600's) are unique in the world as their sex ratio and age distribution are not managed by human beings, and no culling of bulls occurs. The aim of the Wild Ennerdale is for the land to revert, in conjunction with animal agency, to some earlier condition that simulates an earlier wilderness or, more likely, a condition termed by ecologist George Peterken as 'future naturalness' .( Mabey, 1997 cited in Haywood, 2009 The two herds of cattle are allowed to roam free and breed with minimal human intervention. (Wild Ennerdale 2011).

These contemporary manifestations of animal agency differ in spatial representation and status. The Chillingham cattle are historical, exclusive, ordered and part of Establishment, whereas the Ennerdale cattle can be described as co-workers in an experiment whose outcome is unclear and in which human intervention is less visible. According to Foucault ( 1967 ) the medieval space of 'emplacement' was replaced by 'extension ' from Galileo onwards, yet there remain some spaces in contemporary society that are still inviolable; these he described '…… still nurtured by the hidden presence of the sacred'.

I would argue that the Chillingham cattle belong more to a heterotopia of emplacement, whereas those at Ennerdale occupy a space of extension in which '.. a thing's place was no longer anything but a point in its movement'( 1976