Conservation canine-style

IN 2004, THERE WAS no way David Williams, then an environmental science student at Deakin University, in Victoria, could have predicted the chain reaction a last-minute assignment submission would create. A paper he’d written outlined an environmental management plan that suggested using trained Maremma sheepdogs to protect little penguins from fox predation on Middle Island, off the coast of Warrnambool, in south-western Victoria.

It proved to be a watershed moment in Australian conservation history.

Now known as the Warrnambool Method, the plan not only proved effective at protecting the penguins, it also kickstarted David’s career and inspired the 2015 film Oddball, starring Shane Jacobson. In hindsight, David admits modestly that he did a mediocre job on his assignment but says the idea of using dogs for conservation in a new way turned the right heads.

“There are many similar examples of