Sapelo’s Aurochs

Some believe that these large feral cattle are the closest comparison to the ancient Auroch species that went extinct nearly 400 years ago.

Wild Spanish Cattle were first brought to Sapelo by the famed Highland Clan Chiefs John Mohr and his son William Mackintosh of Borlum. These Highlanders turned cow hunters rounded up La Florida cattle that had been wild since being abandoned by the Spanish beginning in 1588. These feral long horns were then shipped over to Sapelo Island and let roam freely.

William and his father John Mohr both received, for the service in the War of Austrian Succession, the King’s Land Grant of 350 acres on April 5th 1756. These were the first Royal Grants on Sapelo Island. In the following years William also managed and raised cattle for his brother-in-law, Patrick Mackay’s Sapelo estate. When McKay died, William Mackintosh and James Spalding were executors of the Sapelo holdings, which was nearly the entire Island. William, with help from son-in-law James Spalding, hunted down feral cattle from La Florida, brought originally by the conquistadors in the 1500 and 1600’s. They were believed to be Andalusia cattle, then known as long horns, and were driven north and transported precariously to Sapelo by ship seven miles off the coast. Throughout the 1800’s the same wild La Florida Spanish cattle, by then called Cracker and Pineywood, were again brought to Sapelo as part of the plantation plan by James’ son Thomas Spalding. These feral island cattle roamed freely for generations, enduring extreme conditions from powerful hurricanes to engulfing forest fires, but through the centuries they survived among the live oaks and the thickets of Spanish bayonet. When the island transferred ownership twice more in the early 1900’s, they too inadvertently released domesticated cattle into the forests, savannahs and salt marshes. This infusion added to the feral herd numbers and reduced inbreeding which kept them from dying out through the centuries.

In the spring of 1925, a well-known American historian visited St Catherine’s, the sister island of Sapelo, and was aghast to find that Georgia’s state authorities were engaged in exterminating all of the wild cattle roaming freely on the island. It was no secret at the time that these legacy cattle were purchased and placed there by Button Gwinnett, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence 250 years earlier. Fortunately, today’s Department of Natural Resources have the foresight to allow their continued existence on what assuredly is one of the last strongholds of feral cattle in the world.

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