Australia deploys sheepdogs to save tiny penguins from foxes

Posted by On November 08, 2015 0 Comment
Phillip Root, who takes care of the Maremma sheepdogs that protect the native little penguin population on Middle Island, Australia, takes the dogs for a walk on Oct. 21, 2015. The little penguins, the name of the smallest penguin species, were being decimated by red foxes on the island. (David Maurice Smith/The New York Times)

Phillip Root, who takes care of the Maremma sheepdogs that protect the native little penguin population on Middle Island, Australia, takes the dogs for a walk on Oct. 21, 2015. The little penguins, the name of the smallest penguin species, were being decimated by red foxes on the island. (David Maurice Smith/The New York Times)

Fantastic story of how a farmer saved a species from extinction with sheep dogs when foxes had decimated the population of a tiny penguin species.

Australia deploys sheepdogs to save tiny penguins from foxes

A little penguin, the name of the smallest penguin species, rests in a crack in the rocks on Middle Island, Australia, Oct. 21, 2015. Maremma, a particularly territorial breed of sheepdog, have been deployed to the island to protect the birds, whose population was being decimated by red foxes. (David Maurice Smith/The New York Times)

A little penguin, the name of the smallest penguin species, rests in a crack in the rocks on Middle Island, Australia, Oct. 21, 2015. Maremma, a particularly territorial breed of sheepdog, have been deployed to the island to protect the birds, whose population was being decimated by red foxes. (David Maurice Smith/The New York Times)

An Australian farmer’s simple solution to the killing off of a little penguin population became local legend and the subject of a popular film, “Oddball.”

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