This silly big dog has saved more than 4,000 people

December 24 was a sleepless night for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which was busy tracking a known flying object with an amazing speed and strange route - Santa's sleigh. While monitoring Santa, they also reported Santa's latest location to the children who called in.

Dog sledding | fox jia foxjeef / Wikimedia Commons

Santa Claus' sleigh is actually very particular. Using reindeer to pull the sleigh is a tradition in Northern Europe and Northeast Asia, while the mainstream in North America is to use dogs to pull the sleigh. One of the most famous sled dogs is the mixed-blood dog Buck, the protagonist of "The Call of the Wild" written by Jack London. His father is a St. Bernard and his mother is a sheepdog.

The soul of the St. Bernard hanging on the barrel

As a Swiss strongman weighing more than 200 kilograms, St. Bernard is not a sled dog in everyone's mind, but a rescue dog. There is a wooden barrel hanging under its neck. It is rumored that the barrel is filled with strong liquor, but there is also a saying that it is filled with hot chocolate.

Alpine Mastiff Encouraging a Dejected Traveler | Edwin Landseer

In fact, the soulful “outfit” of the St. Bernard hanging a wooden barrel came from the inspiration of a British painter. In an oil painting called “Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveller”, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer of the United Kingdom hung a small wooden barrel around the neck of a dog. This combination has spread so widely that the small wooden barrel has become a fixed component of the image of the St. Bernard.

St. Bernard and a small wooden barrel | st-bernard-events / Wikimedia Commons

Careful readers will notice that the breed of the dog in that painting is "Alpine Mastiff". This is because the painting was created in 1820, and the modern Saint Bernard breed had not yet been established!

Named after the monastery

The founder of the modern St. Bernard breed was Heinrich Schumacher, an innkeeper who began breeding St. Bernard dogs in 1855. In 1867, he produced the first pedigree document for the St. Bernard, and it was not until 1880 that the St. Bernard was officially named as a breed by the Swiss Kennel Club.

Saint Bernard | Ofrockwood/Wikimedia Commons

In 1884, Switzerland held a nationwide dog registration. The first dog registered was a St. Bernard named Leon, and the next 28 records were also St. Bernards. After that, the Swiss St. Bernard Club was established in Basel. In 1887, at the International Cinema Congress, the St. Bernard was finally recognized and a mandatory standard was established.

The reason why the St. Bernard was named so late is that this breed appeared relatively late. Although it is rumored that the St. Bernard appeared in the 10th or 11th century, it is probably confused with other concepts. The St. Bernard dog is named after the St. Bernard Monastery, and the mountain pass next to it is also called the St. Bernard Pass. The monastery is named after a priest named San Bernardino De Mentone, who founded the monastery to provide free food and accommodation for travelers passing through the mountain pass.

Photo of Barry the St. Bernard and the monks | Julien frères, Phot. Editeurs, Genève / Wikimedia Commons

In the 1660s, the monks of the monastery received dogs as gifts from the residents, which marked the beginning of the formation of the St. Bernard breed. The monks gave the dogs many tasks, such as guarding the house, pulling carts, and even warming beds. St. Bernard dogs would pull carts to transport barrels of milk, which was another fate for them and wooden barrels.

When accompanying the monks on patrols and rescuing travelers in blizzards, St. Bernard dogs showed amazing abilities: they were said to be able to smell 3 kilometers away, dig through 4 meters of snow, and were good at supporting and dragging victims. In the past 300 years, St. Bernard dogs have saved more than 4,000 people. The most famous rescue dog was Barry, who saved more than 40 people between 1810 and 1814. Therefore, the Paris Dog Cemetery also erected a special statue for him. In 1800, when Napoleon led his army through the St. Bernard Pass, he also relied on the guidance of St. Bernard dogs.

Painting of Napoleon crossing the Saint Bernard Pass | Jacques-Louis David / Wikimedia Commons

Who are the descendants of the Saint Bernard?

Unfortunately, between 1816 and 1818, the Alps suffered a cold weather disaster, and many St. Bernards died. In order to restore the population, the monks crossed the St. Bernard with another famous water rescue dog, the Newfoundland, to further enhance their size and bones. There is also a view that the bloodline of the Great Dane was also introduced into the St. Bernard family.

Anyway, this round of crossbreeding also led to the differentiation of the St. Bernard into long-haired and short-haired strains. The monks found that the long-haired St. Bernards were prone to snow and ice accumulation, which made it difficult for them to work, so they gave them away as gifts, which in turn spread the bloodline of the St. Bernard.

Statue of a Molossian Mastiff in the British Museum | Yair Haklai / Wikimedia Commons

There are many subtle rumors about the pedigree of the St. Bernard. Some say that the St. Bernard's ancestors were the Molossian hounds carried by the Roman legions, and that they were created after the mastiffs and local dogs were mixed. Switzerland also bred excellent breeds such as the Bernese Mountain Dog and the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, and local dogs contributed to this.

The origin of the Molossian Mastiff is much more complicated. Some say that Caesar brought them into the Alps, but there seems to be no relevant record in Caesar's own "The Gallic War" and "The Civil War". Others say that the Molossian Mastiff got its name from the royal family of Epirus. There are also rumors that they are descendants of the Asian mastiffs brought back by Alexander the Great during his eastern expedition (some records of Pliny the Elder may serve as circumstantial evidence). Some Tibetan Mastiff advocates believe that the St. Bernard is related to the Tibetan Mastiff in terms of pedigree, and there is also a strange story that Genghis Khan led a 30,000-man Tibetan Mastiff army to conquer Europe. This legend is full of inconsistency. Not only does the time not match, it is not even recorded in unorthodox historical materials such as "The Secret History of the Mongols" and "The History of the World Conquerors".

The ambiguity and even lack of historical data always make people wonder. However, the addition of modern science often fills in a puzzle piece for history in an incredible place. Around 2004, researchers at the College of Animal Science and Technology of Nanjing Agricultural University and China Agricultural University confirmed that the St. Bernard is indeed related to the Tibetan Mastiff through the analysis of mitochondrial DNA.

Tibetan Terrier | PateraIncus / Wikimedia Commons

In the same year, the research team of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the United States selected 103 dog breeds from 513 kennels across the United States. By analyzing DNA to calculate the distance of kinship, they found that the closest relative to the St. Bernard is the Tibetan Terrier. It is generally believed that the Tibetan Terrier did not leave Tibet until the 20th century, and this new research may hint at some history that has not yet been revealed.

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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