
Dogs that protect little penguins (2015) - happy-go-lucky
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35039105
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p1mrx
Could you imagine living with a creature 10+ times your size who keeps you
alive? It's basically _The Iron Giant_ in nature.

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thaumasiotes
> Could you imagine living with a creature 10+ times your size who keeps you
> alive?

So, a child with a parent?

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p1mrx
That's a reasonable analogy, yes.

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mdekkers
We have a Maremma, as do some of our friends. They are incredibly dogs,
extremely smart and independent. Also stubborn.

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Nerada
I was unaware they were no longer called Fairy Penguins.

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emiliobumachar
Anyone could clarify what's politically incorrect about that name? English is
not my native language.

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iguy
The word is occasionally used to mean gay, although the meaning of small
imaginary creatures is still much more common.

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fenwick67
I wonder if it's more commonly used that way in Australia?

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dwd
The Australian usage is more along the lines of an weak or effeminate man,
similar in usage to pansy.

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cushychicken
Why don't the dogs kill the penguins?

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ivanhoe
if only English didn't bring the foxes to Australia...

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Ntrails
Obviously yes, but heck if only humans had never gone to Australia in the
first place it would still be populated by innumerable species that simply no
longer exist.

We were destroying ecosystems long before there was anything that could
reasonably be called a nation state.

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caf
The foxes weren't any kind of accident or incidental to human arrival though -
they were deliberately introduced so that fox hunting could be engaged in!

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OJFord
The combustion engine was deliberately mass produced for vehicles so that
people could move faster!

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caf
In my opinion there's a relevant distinction between the development of a
technology that caused incidental and largely unforeseen environmental
degradation, and an act of deliberate alteration of the environment that
resulted in entirely foreseeable degradation.

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m_herrlich
aww

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Syzygies
I'm baffled why they didn't just dredge the channel to make it a few feet
deeper, keeping the foxes from crossing?

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barry-cotter
The foxes know the penguins are there now and they’re perfectly capable of
swimming across a ten metre channel for some food. Also, dredging would need
to be repeated every ten years minimum. The dogs may be cheaper as well. Dog
food is cheap.

