Australia’s Middle Island is home to some very small residents called fairy penguins. Fairy penguins are the world’s smallest-standing at 13 inches tall.
Starting in 1991, sedimentation and tidal patterns created a short window during the year when a tidal causeway allowed access to Middle Island from the mainland, which foxes quickly discovered and used to devastate this ground-nesting bird population.
Enter a local chicken farmer named Swampy Marsh. GoodNewsNetwork.org explains, he had no professional background in conservation but he did understand how to keep chickens safe from foxes.
Marsh says he used Maremma dogs as guardians. Though officially no dogs were allowed on Middle Island, since little penguins are equally as defenseless against foxes, the same protection scheme would work.
And it did; though officially no dogs were allowed on Middle Island, the severity of the little penguins’ plight convinced Warrnambool city council to give it a go. Marsh then arrived with his dog Oddball and got to work.
GoodNewsNetwork reports their success was immediate and sustained. It totally changed the fox pattern for entry onto the island and soon Oddball’s role was professionalized, creating the Middle Island Project for breeding these Maremma dogs for use in protecting Middle Island.
The dogs don’t actually attack the foxes, they just hang out on the island in pairs. If they smell a fox in the distance, their deep, basso barks are enough to scare the predators away. Conservationists ensure the dogs can take a few days off, and have everything they need to do their job, including food, water, shade, and company.