An alarming number of dead penguins and birds in Australia has led to Maremma sheepdogs becoming protectors of penguins. Now there are plans in Victoria of using this solution to protect other indigenous species from predators, according to NYTimes.
In October 2004, there was one incident of 180 penguins killed by foxes. Then the death toll of penguins in Middle Island, southern part of Australia, kept on increasing. The penguin population in the island went from 800 down to 10. Fortunately, now their population has increased. This is all because of Swampy Marsh and his determined sheepdogs.
As a chicken farmer, Swampy Marsh or Allan by his real name spent nights trying to keep foxes away from his chickens. He then thought of a solution. "It was three o'clock in the morning, and the neighbors had a damn dog, you could hear it barking," he said. "I was a bit slow off the mark. It took a few nights for me to realize it".
Ben, his first Maremma sheepdog, was then tasked to help chase predators away from penguins.
David Williams, a university student who worked on Mr. Marsh's farm, made a proposal for using and releasing Maremma to the island. Later on, he passed a formal proposal to the state environmental agency. The approval of the proposal took a long time but fortunately by 2006 it was approved. Now, the numbers of penguins have increased to about 180.
According to Stuff, this "has become one of Warrnambool's most unusual features and a world first in conservation practice." The success of the project even prompted a movie to be named after Oddball, Ben's daughter.
Now, they aim to replicate this success in Victoria to reintroduce eastern wild bandicoots, which has been out of captivity since 2002, into the wild with the help of Maremma dogs.
