Sheepdogs shepherd endangered penguins in Australia

[Judi Lynn]

Sheepdogs shepherd endangered penguins in Australia
By DPA
Jan 5, 2009, 8:12 GMT

Sydney - Sheepdogs have proved such perfect guardians for a colony of fairy penguins on a small south-coast Australian island that conservationists are confident the caring canines can be recruited to safeguard other endangered animals from being savaged by foxes and wild dogs.

'We're now starting to see some great results,' said Middle Island Maremma Project manager Ian Fitzgibbons. 'We've had our best penguin count since we began in 2006 with over 80 birds counted in one night and I think we have about 26 chicks on the island too.'

Maremmas are a breed of sheepdog from Italy that bond with flocks and protect them from predators. They live with their flocks and will lay down their lives for them.

Until a couple of Maremmas were recruited to guard the fairy penguins on Middle Island four years ago, conservationists had despaired of saving the colony. Numbers had fallen from 5,000 to just 100.

More:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1451569.php/Sheepdogs_shepherd_endangered_penguins_in_Australia_

They are beautiful creatures:

http://www.pgtc.com.nyud.net:8090/~heartacres/Bogie__Goats_12-18-01.jpg

Many more in google images:
http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=20&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en&q=Maremmas&start=0&sa=N

[MadMaddie]

1. Good Looking dogs.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Our dogs' herding trainer uses them as guard dogs

They are beautiful, and the puppies are just adorable little balls of fluff.

Having five of them run out from under a trailer to greet your car is just cute overload.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. They remind me very much of the Kuvasz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuvasz




Not sure if this is the one, but one of the white herding dogs are raised WITHIN the herd of sheep/lambs. They are put into the heard as puppies so they will grow up thinking it is their pack and protect it as such.