Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 12 March 2018
Imported guard dogs deployed as part of U.S. wolf-sheep study

By KEITH RIDLER Oregon.
Associated Press Scientists are still analyzing
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Fed- information from notes, re-
eral scientists are trying to mote cameras and GPS
decide if it’s time to let the collars, Young said, with
big dogs out. four or five scientific pa-
Nearly 120 dogs from three pers expected in the next
large breeds perfected year. But overall, she said,
over centuries in Europe the dogs did well keep-
and Asia to be gentle ing away wolves and bet-
around sheep and children ter than traditional guard
but vicious when confront- dogs at deterring coyotes.
ing wolves recently under- One dog died during the
went a study to see how study. It was hit by a ve-
they’d react to their old hicle as sheep crossed a
nemesis on a new conti- road.
nent. For decades, most U.S.
The dogs were gathered sheep producers have
as puppies in Portugal, used large white dogs such
Bulgaria and Turkey and as Great Pyrenees, Akbash
sent to the American West, or Maremma Sheepdogs.
where they spent four years Light brown Anatolian
guarding sheep. In this 2014 photo provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture a Kangal dog walks with a heard Shepherds are also used.
“When we were first look- of sheep at the Hutterite Rockport Colony near Pendroy, Mont. But the reintroduction of
ing at doing this, a lot of Associated Press wolves in the American
people wanted to know: The department looked to veloped in a mountainous one originating in Turkey. West in the 1990s has led to
What dog do I use in deal- areas where dog breeds region of Portugal; Kara- Dogs from all three breeds questions about whether
ing with wolves and grizzly developed to guard sheep kachans, developed by can weigh up to 140 those breeds are up to the
bears?” said Julie Young, against wolves and brown nomadic sheepherders pounds (64 kilograms), task. Since wolves returned
a Utah-based research bi- bears. Then scientists sup- in a mountainous area of about the size of a wolf. The to Idaho in 1995, the Agri-
ologist with the U.S. Agricul- plied Cao de Gado Trans- Bulgaria; and Kangals, an- dogs were sent to guard 65 culture Department’s Wild-
ture Department’s National montanos, a large though other powerful breed with herds in Idaho, Montana, life Services says, wolves
Wildlife Research Center. lean and agile dog de- an instinct for guarding, this Wyoming, Washington and have killed 50 guard dogs
through the end of last
John Sulston, who decoded the human genome, dies at 75 year and injured nearly 40
others in the state. Federal
rected, confirmed Friday rector, said. “We all feel officials in 2017 killed 56
that Sulston had died but the loss today of a great wolves in Idaho due to at-
did not say when or give scientific visionary and tacks on livestock.
the cause of death. leader who made historic, Young said the study found
Sulston shared the prize in landmark contributions to wolves left areas when
2002 for his contribution knowledge of the living sheep bands, dogs and
to work unraveling how world, and established a herders arrived, but their
genes control cell division. mission and agenda that absence emboldened
He traced the adult nema- defines 21st century sci- smaller predators such as
tode worm, C. elegans, to ence,” Stratton added. coyotes.
decipher how cells divide Sulston was fascinated Not all dogs in the study
and create something new from an early age with the succeeded. Jill Swannack,
— findings the Sanger Insti- mechanical workings of president of the Washing-
tute said were key to un- organisms. He graduated ton State Sheep Producers,
derstanding how cancers from Cambridge University is a veterinarian who also
A Monday, Feb. 12, 2001 file photo of John Sulston, former director has a ranch with about 800
of the Sanger Center and leader of the UK effort to sequence develop. in 1963, and did postdoc-
the human genome, stands in front of a picture of a model of “He had a burning and toral research in Califor- sheep on private land in
the DNA double helix after a press conference to announce the unrelenting commitment nia before joining Sydney eastern Washington state.
completion of the mapping of the human genome. to making genome data Brenner’s group at the She received three Kara-
Associated Press open to all without restric- Cambridge University mo- kachans. “When we came
LONDON (AP) — John He was 75. The Wellcome tion and his leadership in lecular biology lab, where home, they preferred to
Sulston, a Nobel Prize-win- Sanger Institute, the suc- this regard is in large part the structure of DNA was be home with us,” she said.
ning British scientist who cessor to the cutting-edge responsible for the free ac- first identified. They pub- “They really didn’t bond to
helped decode the hu- genomic research center cess now enjoyed,” Mike lished the gene map of the the sheep.”
man genome, has died. he once founded and di- Stratton, the institute’s di- nematode worm in 1990..q She also said the dogs were
only about 70 or 80 pounds
(32 to 36 kilograms). One
went to a young family with
sheep near their house,
and now that dog plays
with the children and has
successfully guarded those
sheep against coyotes.
The dogs that work best at
her ranch are Anatolian
Shepherds, though wolves
killed one in 2014.q