We all know about sheepherding dogs and pooches that protect livestock or rescue little Timmy from the well. But have you heard about the dogs that protect an island of little penguins?
On Middle Island in Australia, little penguins — the actual name of a small species of penguin — were dangerously close to being wiped out, their number decimated by foxes that would prowl around the uninhabited island looking for an easy meal.
Then a man named Swampy Marsh and a dog named Oddball showed up.
Marsh, a chicken farmer whose given name is Allan, proposed sending Maremma sheepdogs to defend the penguins. Oddball was the first dog deployed and, as the story goes, not a single penguin has been lost since 2005, when the island's population had dwindled to single digits. It has since rebounded to 150, according to a story in The New York Times.
Although the little penguins are not considered an endangered species, the model of using protective dogs is being considered for other species. And there's also a movie, naturally: "Oddball".
