Man, I love dogs. I don’t think I want to be the person mainly responsible for something that needs that level of emotional involvement, I’m more of a cat person, but dogs are 100% pure beasties and the embodiment of enthusiasm.
It turns out that Border Collies are an ideal breed for this specific type of job. Bounding through miles of forest terrain requires not only speed, intelligence, and endurance, but also a willingness to stay focused and not get distracted by wildlife. Border Collies were bred to herd sheep, so they’re not as likely to run after or hurt other animals in the forest.
This system is also more efficient than having people spread the seeds manually. These speedy canines can race through a forest and cover up to 18 miles a day. Humans, on the other hand, can only cover a few miles each day. These pups can scatter over 20 pounds of seeds, depending on the terrain. While robots or drones might be able to disperse seeds too, dogs aren’t as pricey to handle. Most importantly, they leave a lighter carbon footprint.
Francisca and Constanza put special backpacks on the dogs, fill them with native seeds and then it’s off to the races. Once the dogs have emptied out their bags, Francisca and Constanza give them plenty of treats, refill their bags, and release them again to dash around the destroyed forest, sprinkling more seeds in their wake. The end goal of all this, of course, is to restore the damaged ecosystem and have the wildlife return to the forests.
I LOVE THIS
I love when humans take pointers from nature. #naturehack
She jumps in and out of the puppy pen all day on her own. She is a cat – if she didn’t like it, she wouldn’t choose to do it 🙂
she’s not showing any signs of distress; she doesn’t shut down, freeze, hiss, or swat. She struts through the sea of zois with a confident high tail and grace
Good cat is good and nuzzling into the puppy smothering
@why-animals-do-the-thing I don’t think I’ve ever met a cat who would put up with this, let alone seem to enjoy it. Pretty cool. The pups seem to love her, too, it’s adorable.
Happy New Year! 2018 is the Year of the Doggo. This doesn’t officially happen until the Chinese New Year on February 16th, 2018, but we’re so excited about it that we want to start celebrating the awesomeness of our canine friends right away.
Thankfully Bored Panda assembled a collection of dog-related snapchats that are equal parts cute, heartwarming, and hilarious. These are some of our favorites. Click here for many, many more.
Went to a waterfall to get some pictures (as per usual) and met this pup! Wild ADORES Frenchies, so we were both excited that he liked Wild back! #WildlingWanders
Sharing this both as an example of great careful play between two dogs of drastically different sizes, and also as good proactive management of an animal that is likely to have a high prey drive around a smaller animal.
@darkwooddt‘s high content wolfdog puppy is soliciting play with the Frenchie at the Frenchie’s level – he’s not trying to play with him like he would a bigger dog. He’s gotten down to the smaller dog’s level (because big dogs can sometimes overwhelm smaller ones if they stay standing) and you can see he’s being very gentle and careful in how he contacts the Frenchie in play.
Similarly, it’s nice to see the woofer was kept on leash for this interaction. The smaller dog is off-leash and has room to maneuver around the bigger dog – which means he can also choose to back off and take space if he gets overwhelmed. Wild being leashed means he can’t continue to initiate play or be pushy if the Frenchie decides he needs space; it also makes sure that if the Frenchie suddenly did anything to accidentally trigger the prey drive that is probable in most high content wolfdogs, his owner is still able to keep him under control and remove him from the situation.
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