Dogs and birds don't mix. I mean who hasn't seen their beloved pet turn into a hellhound, when allowed to run off leash, to race down the beach in hot pursuit of seagulls?
An innovative conservation program uses sheepdogs to solve a modern problem
In southern Australia, a sturdy breed of sheepdog known as the Maremma sheepdog is hard at work guarding the Little penguins of Middle Island. So how did this unlikely animal kingdom alliance come about? In the mid-1990s, the beach town of Warambool faced a new foe; foxes had infiltrated Middle Island to devour Little penguins and within a decade’s time the colony was on the brink of elimination.
“The crisis came to a head, in 2005, when foxes killed 360 penguins over the course of two …show more content…
The nonnative foxes adapted to their environment and began to devour native species. They found tiny, flightless Little penguins, the smallest of the penguin species, easy prey.
On the Australian mainland, once large, raucous colonies of Little penguins fell silent, as foxes (along with feral cats and wild dogs) took their toll. Which is why most of Australia's remaining penguin colonies occupy craggy, hard to reach beachheads and the shorelines of nearby islands.
According to research studies, the introduction of exotic species to islands has led to the extinction of native species worldwide. Predation along with contributing factors, such as habitat loss, has resulted in the extinction of
80 percent of all land-based species. In Australia, for example, 24 species of bird, 4 frogs and 27 mammals are believed to have gone extinct since European settlement.
Waramwbool, located 300 kilometers southwest of Victoria, was not immune to this phenomenon. By the 1990s, the foxes had followed the penguins to Middle Island. When sediment carried by high tides had created a land bridge that enabled foxes to cross from the Australian mainland to the island at low tide.
Enter the Maremma
Once used to fend off wolves in the mountains of Italy, Maremma …show more content…
Tactics that many conservationists regard as an ineffective means to curtail the behavior of predators. “Killing often doesn’t work very well, because the predators can so quickly recover their numbers, either by breeding up or by migrating from elsewhere. Fencing can work, but it is expensive and labor-intensive. This is a major limitation in Australia, because so many of our farms are very big, and building, then maintaining a predator-proof fence around a property is often impractical”
Dr. Johnson wrote.
The lessons acquired at Middle Island are being applied elsewhere. For example, at Zoos Victoria, a pilot program is underway that pair Maremma dogs with bandicoots, a tiny rodent-like marsupial at risk of extinction in
Australia.
That said, Abbott cautions that the use of Maremma dogs to protect vulnerable species isn’t easy task. After all, dogs will be dogs. From time to time, they do wander off Middle Island to pursue foxes, leaving the penguins open to attack and placing the dogs at the risk of being injured by motorists.
Still, he thinks the effort has been worthwhile. “We’re trying to save a cute penguin with a cute dog, and it ticks off a lot of boxes in terms of people’s
An innovative conservation program uses sheepdogs to solve a modern problem
In southern Australia, a sturdy breed of sheepdog known as the Maremma sheepdog is hard at work guarding the Little penguins of Middle Island. So how did this unlikely animal kingdom alliance come about? In the mid-1990s, the beach town of Warambool faced a new foe; foxes had infiltrated Middle Island to devour Little penguins and within a decade’s time the colony was on the brink of elimination.
“The crisis came to a head, in 2005, when foxes killed 360 penguins over the course of two …show more content…
The nonnative foxes adapted to their environment and began to devour native species. They found tiny, flightless Little penguins, the smallest of the penguin species, easy prey.
On the Australian mainland, once large, raucous colonies of Little penguins fell silent, as foxes (along with feral cats and wild dogs) took their toll. Which is why most of Australia's remaining penguin colonies occupy craggy, hard to reach beachheads and the shorelines of nearby islands.
According to research studies, the introduction of exotic species to islands has led to the extinction of native species worldwide. Predation along with contributing factors, such as habitat loss, has resulted in the extinction of
80 percent of all land-based species. In Australia, for example, 24 species of bird, 4 frogs and 27 mammals are believed to have gone extinct since European settlement.
Waramwbool, located 300 kilometers southwest of Victoria, was not immune to this phenomenon. By the 1990s, the foxes had followed the penguins to Middle Island. When sediment carried by high tides had created a land bridge that enabled foxes to cross from the Australian mainland to the island at low tide.
Enter the Maremma
Once used to fend off wolves in the mountains of Italy, Maremma …show more content…
Tactics that many conservationists regard as an ineffective means to curtail the behavior of predators. “Killing often doesn’t work very well, because the predators can so quickly recover their numbers, either by breeding up or by migrating from elsewhere. Fencing can work, but it is expensive and labor-intensive. This is a major limitation in Australia, because so many of our farms are very big, and building, then maintaining a predator-proof fence around a property is often impractical”
Dr. Johnson wrote.
The lessons acquired at Middle Island are being applied elsewhere. For example, at Zoos Victoria, a pilot program is underway that pair Maremma dogs with bandicoots, a tiny rodent-like marsupial at risk of extinction in
Australia.
That said, Abbott cautions that the use of Maremma dogs to protect vulnerable species isn’t easy task. After all, dogs will be dogs. From time to time, they do wander off Middle Island to pursue foxes, leaving the penguins open to attack and placing the dogs at the risk of being injured by motorists.
Still, he thinks the effort has been worthwhile. “We’re trying to save a cute penguin with a cute dog, and it ticks off a lot of boxes in terms of people’s