The mystery plant is heather, which grows in the moorland of Scotland, where the red grouse lives and feeds on its shoots and young twigs. It also uses the dense stands of heather to hide from various birds of prey that harry the birds whenever they step out into the open.
The red grouse was the primary gamebird that 1st Baron Tweedmouth shot at Guisachan. When the birds were shot, they fell among the dense heather. Any dog that was going to pick up shot birds in that terrain had to have a good sense of smell and a good marking ability.
Goldens were bred for a superior air-scenting ability. That is one reason why the old-type Irish setter was used in the cross. The Irish setter of that time period was known for its nose and game-finding prowess. Those traits were very much cultivated in the Tweedmouth strain of wavy-coat.
Thus, the dense stands of heather in the moorlands required that the golden have a superior sense of smell.
Interestingly, grouse moors are maintain via controlled burns. The old heather is burned, so that new growth can start. These new shoots of heather are quite delectable to the red grouse, and birds proliferate the moors, providing the shooters with many targets and the dogs many birds to pick up.
Heather burning.
Predators such as foxes, stoats, and crows are killed on the grouse moors to increase the numbers of grouse, but the real killer of red grouse is the strongyle worm. This parasite can really weaken grouse population. The gamekeepers are fighting this parasite using medicated grit.
Also, the red grouse is a subspecies of the willow grouse, which we North Americans call willow ptarmigan. However, unlike other races of willow grouse, this subspecies does not turn white in the winter.
The golden retriever was designed to help in grouse shoots, which are determined by the biology of the red grouse and heather. The nature of both these species helped develop the golden retriever as a working breed. Natural conditions set the standards that determine what is useful in working gundog, not the caprices and vanities of the show ring.
So what you are saying is that we, humans, have kept the moorlands open deliberately for grouse habitat, so the landed classes could have shoots and hunt with their proto goldens? And that retrievers were created just to hunt this artificially maintained moorland from which natural predators were removed so there would be an overpopulation of birds for the sportsman?
So again we interfere with the natural order of things to pursue our own pleasures. Sigh. The only good thing I can see about it are the dogs that have been created as byproducts almost of our pursuit of those pleasures.
That’s exactly what I’m saying. Those grouse moors are artificially maintained solely so landed gentry can shoot grouse. If the average UK citizen could have access to the moors that would be one thing, but they don’t. And as a result the British populations is much more militantly anti-hunting than the US population is. Plus, the Highlands may be remote and sparsely populated now, but two hundred years ago, they were full of people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances
Further, the 1st Baron Tweedmouth was from a part of Scotland that was really close to England, right on the River Tweed. He represented an English constitutency Berwick-upon-Tweed in the County of Northumberland. Berwick-upon-Tweed was once under Scottish rule. It was shire town for what was then called Berwickshire in Scotland. The English took it in one of the border wars and it has been English ever since. It was counted a separate dominion for centuries, on the level of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Most treaties counted Berwick as one fo the roygal possessions, except the Crimean War. So technically Berwick-upon-Tweed is still at war with Russia. So what I’m telling you is that the landed gentry very often weren’t Highlanders.
I will say that, as member of the Liberal Party, the 1st Baron Tweedmouth opposed child labor and expanding the franchise. His daughter, Ishbel, was a bit more progressive. She married Lord Aberdeen, who was a rather progressive fellow. She was very politically active in Scotland and Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishbel_Hamilton-Gordon,_Marchioness_of_Aberdeen_and_Temair
She and her husband brought goldens to British Columbia and kept them on an estate near Lake Okanagan called Guisachan. These were the first goldens in the New World.
Lord Aberdeen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamilton-Gordon,_1st_Marquess_of_Aberdeen_and_Temair
Well, now you see where my political biases lie.
PS: And that air scenting ability plus the superb temperament is what makes goldens such great SAR dogs in today’s world. Who knew then what the result would be from developing that air scenting ability amongst the heather?
And Ogopogo didn’t eat them?
See, bad me, I never researched Guisachan. I assumed because of the Gaelic name they were still in Scotland, not Canada, and that was where they were doing their breeding.
There is much to be said for public access! While I don’t think it necessary to have a gun in a National Park, I do think that hunting, even if it’s in an artificially maintained preserve in the US where anyone with enough $$$ can go hunt whatever or a landed estate in Yorkshire creates an awareness and appreciation that can’t be gotten by living in a townhouse in Manhattan or London. I am not against hunting in spite of my liberal persona. I am against stupidity in the woods and the fields. Alas, you can’t fix stupid. It’s the price of a relatively free society.
The best advocates for maintaining public access, sound hunting and gun laws, catch and release fishing, use of dogs in hunting sports et al are sportsmen and women.
The original Guisachan is in Scotland, built in the eighteenth century. It is now in ruins and exists as a nature preserve. The Guisachan in British Columbia still stands.
I was raised hunting and fishing and union organizing.
What I don’t like are these ranches where you can shoot some exotic antelope for an exorbitant amount of money. That land should be there for native game species.
Borat nailed one of these game ranchers, who also turned out to be a raving anti-Semite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZVZ8h1p4Q
Ps: Lord and Lady Aberdeen sound pretty progressive for their time, place and birthright!
I am researching photos for inclusion in a book on British Birds. The shot of the red grouse on this blog may work in the slot we have available.
Is the photo your own? Or if not, are you able to direct me to the owner or source?
Best wishes
Bruce