Natural History

We all know that the people of Georgia celebrate their traditions and heritage as much as they love their football.

Among those traditions is Uga, the bulldog mascot of the University of Georgia. All of these dogs have been AKC-type “English” bulldogs, the ones that often appear in critiques of purebred dogs, usually because these dogs have a plethora of health conditions that typically come from their unique conformation.

All of these facts came to a head when Uga VII died Thursday morning at the age of 4. He unexpectedly died of a heart condition, and his owner said the dog wasn’t all that active compared to other bulldogs. Gina Spadafori at Pet Connection correctly suggests that lots of reforms have to be made to make a “less extreme” bulldog that can live a good long life (and also links to a post of mine that has a video of David Hancock’s analysis of historical bulldog conformation).

I think those reforms should be made, but I have another proposal.

The bulldog mascots are all what are called English bulldogs, as in they were developed solely in the United Kingdom.

However, Georgia already has a native bulldog, and it is also a less extreme version that looks a lot like the old-strain of bulldogs in the video.

In the American South, the bulldog was able to exist almost exactly as it did in England. The large plantations and wilderness farms required good catch dogs for moving and controlling livestock.

Virtually every part of the South had its own peculiar form of this dog. Today, these animals have been standardized into several breeds, including the relatively well-known American bulldog.

However, in the Alapaha region of South Georgia, a unique strain of the old-type bulldog has been preserved. The Lane family of Rebecca, Georgia, collected preserved this strain of bulldog, which they were afraid was becoming extinct.

The breed has since been called the Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog, and it is very clearly an example of the old bulldog strain.

They are apparently healthier than the typical English bulldog, even though they are larger.  According to the various sites I’ve looked at, the life expectancy is 12-15 years.  According the best analysis of English bulldog longevity, the average lifespan for that breed is a little over 6 years.

Now, an Alapaha Blue Blood Bulldog is a larger animal than an English bulldog, and they do have a somewhat sharper edge that one can expect from these type of bulldogs.

But it would be a great statement if the University of Georgia would choose one of these dogs to be the next Uga.