Professor David Grainger Marcus Wood-Gush FRSE (20 November 1922 – 1 December 1992) was a South African-born animal geneticist and

ethologist Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...

based for most of his professional life in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. He was an expert on animal behaviour and academic author in this field. He was one of the first to study the impacts of factory farming. He advocated the study of animal behaviour to gauge what implied "humane treatment" for different species, and tried to balance these factors against economic viability for the farmer. He looked at the impact of stress upon animals and held that animals should be treated as individuals not as a "commodity". In these studies he concluded that food supply was the essential factor in controlling animal behaviour.The Scotsman (newspaper) obituary 8 December 1992 He was one of the first to both see the benefits of and physically introduce the concept of

free range Free range denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals, for at least part of the day, can roam freely outdoors, rather than being confined in an enclosure for 24 hours each day. On many farms, the outdoors ranging area is fenced, ...

farming.

Life

He was born in

Transkei Transkei (, meaning ''the area beyond he riverKei''), officially the Republic of Transkei ( xh, iRiphabliki yeTranskei), was an unrecognised state in the southeastern region of South Africa from 1976 to 1994. It was, along with Ciskei, a Ba ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

on 20 November 1922 into a Quaker family of British origin. He was educated at

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

. His university career was interrupted by the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

during which he served in North Africa in the

South African Air Force "Through hardships to the stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...

as a bomber

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

. He lost his lower left arm in 1944 whilst home on leave, due to a motorcycle accident where he was riding pillion. The driver, his friend and the pilot of his bomber, was killed in the accident. David was plagued by phantom pains in the missing hand for all his life."Obituary: Professor David Wood-Gush"
''The Independent''. Retrieved 2 January 2022. After the war he studied Science at

Witwatersrand University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, graduating BSc in 1948. Increasing despairing at his county’s politics and

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

policy, he left in 1949, going to the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

(which had a growing reputation in the field of genetics) as a postgraduate where he gained both a doctorate in 1952 (PhD) and a Diploma in Animal Genetics (studying under Prof

Conrad Hal Waddington Conrad Hal Waddington (8 November 1905 – 26 September 1975) was a British developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher who laid the foundations for systems biology, epigenetics, and evolutionary developm ...

and Dr Alan William Greenwood). He thereafter began work at the Poultry Research Centre. Due to his personal limb loss he did much research to establish if animals might feel similar phantom pains to his own due to actions such as dehorning etc. He was always concerned of potential pain and animal suffering in various procedures. In 1975 he conducted an infamous experiment on a remote Scottish island, re-wilding domesticated chickens to measure how they survived. Unfortunately all were killed by a resident population of escaped mink. In 1976 he repeated the experiment somewhat more successfully using pigs. In 1978 the Poultry Research Centre decided to relocate to

Roslin, Midlothian Roslin (formerly spelt Rosslyn or Roslyn; Scottish Gaelic: Riasg Linne) is a village in Midlothian, Scotland, 11 kilometres (7 mi) to the south of the capital city Edinburgh. It stands on high ground, near the northwest bank of the river ...

and began more industry-based research. Given David’s disapproval of this and his lack of driving licence (due to his missing arm) making it very difficult to reach this remote site. He moved to more academic roles in Edinburgh instead. In 1978 he began teaching Applied Animal Behaviour at the

. He was given an Honorary Professorship by the

in 1981. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Noel Farnie Robertson,

Aubrey Manning Aubrey William George Manning, OBE, FRSE, FRSB, (24 April 1930 – 20 October 2018)John Mitchison, Peter M. B. Walker, Peter McDonald and John E. Dale. From 1984 to 1987 he was President of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. He was also Chairman of the International Society of Applied Ethology. During this period he famously set up the "Edinburgh Pig Park" investigating the benefits of free range pork. He died of a heart attack while checking into a hotel for a conference in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 1 December 1992. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the sea near his birthplace of

. The University created a Wood-Gush Memorial Lecture in his memory.

Family

He married Eola in 1953. They had a daughter Amynta (born 1957) and son Guy (born 1958).

Selected publications

*''The Genetic and Population Dynamics of Porcellio Scaber'' (1953) *''Self-Awareness in Domesticated Animals'' (1981) *''Elements of Ethology'' (1983) *''The Behaviour of Domestic Fowl'' (1971 reprinted 1989) *''Managing the Behaviour of Animals'' (1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood-Gush, David Grainger Marcus 1922 births 1992 deaths 20th-century British zoologists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Animal welfare scholars Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Ethologists Scottish amputees South African Air Force personnel of World War II South African expatriates in the United Kingdom University of the Witwatersrand alumni