THE coq gaulois, symbol of French dash and pride from the Middle Ages to the football age, is under threat of extinction.
While the roosters crow on as the French mascot at international sports events, the population of the scarlet-combed, flame-necked Gallus Gallus has dwindled at home to about 150 birds. So concerned is the Government that funds have been provided for a project to save its sperm for posterity.
As handsome as Gallus is, the poultry industry has recently eschewed the lightweight breed in favour of fleshier birds more suited to coq au vin. Experts say an epidemic of bird flu could wipe out the survivors of the race that has strutted farmyards for 2,000 years.
The National Agriculture Research Institute has joined breeders in a scheme to produce 25 model birds, and deep-freeze their sperm indefinitely.Persuading the shy animals to provide samples has proved to be the hardest part. “It is a rustic species, very seasonal-minded, and it has to be really persuaded to copulate,” said Elisabeth Blesbois, of the institute.
Believers in French virility have been disappointed to learn that the rooster has no penis. Since hen’s eggs cannot be frozen the Gallus Gallus could be renewed following extinction only after breeding from non-Gallic hens.
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The cock, recorded by the Romans as a Gaulish emblem, is being kept alive by some 120 amateur breeders. “We are ready to travel hundreds of kilometres for contests,” Jean-Paul Gresselin, a Normandy breeder, said. “The coq is of no commercial interest. It is a little animal that fattens slowly and is a bit wild. It jumps into trees.”
The Gallic Cock Breeders’ Association is calling for a national effort to save the breed. “Let us show off their aesthetic and gustatory qualities,” says its latest newsletter. “Let us make good use of the animals our ancestors were proud of.”
The history of the cock as a patriotic symbol is curious. Unlike such national beasts as the imperial eagle or lion, the farmyard bird was adopted only after foreign enemies had long used it to convey unflattering points about the French.
The vain, foolish and boastful Chantecleer of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was taken over by Revolutionary France as a symbol of vigilance and valour. But ambivalence about the merits of the humble rooster led the French Olympic Committee to abandon it as the national mascot in 1997 after 94 years’ loyal service.
The rugby team made much of its Australian-born coq at the World Cup last year, but at the European Championship in Portugal the only feathered birds in the stadium are brandished by French fans who have smuggled them in.
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