How training dogs to dodge snakes helps protect livestock and save Namibia's cheetahs
Dogs trained to guard goats and sheep against cheetahs in Namibia are being felled at an alarming rate by venomous snakes – so conservationists are piloting a new training method to teach the dogs to…
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Dogs trained to guard goats and sheep against cheetahs in Namibia are being felled at an alarming rate.
By protecting livestock from attacks, dogs can play a crucial role in reducing conflict between farmers and endangered predators.
But Anatolian and Kangal shepherd dogs, ancient breeds native to Turkey and now deployed to guard farms in Namibia, are so devoted to their herds that they’ll naturally confront any snake that approaches – and pay for it with their lives.
“They have no fear of anything and so they will go directly up to snakes,” says Calum O’Flaherty, who manages the livestock guarding dog programme at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF).
“They will protect against anything they feel is a threat to their herd.”
Since the CCF started training dogs in Namibia 30 years ago and placing them on hundreds of farms as a deterrent to carnivores like lions, cheetahs, leopards and jackals, 84 dogs have been killed by the bites of snakes – mostly puff adders, zebra cobras and black mambas.
More than 50 of the dogs have been killed in the past five years alone.
Frozen snakes
In response, the group has developed pioneering snake aversion lessons that involve familiarising the dogs with the sight and smell of snakes in a controlled environment using – among other props – frozen snakes.At its conservation centre in Otjiwarongo, central Namibia, the dead snakes, collected from roadkill sites and preserved at the centre’s genetic biobank, are placed in trenches dug inside a training pen. The inside of the pen resembles the dogs’ typical working environment, complete with animal skulls, rocks, and fallen trees.
Since the shepherd dogs are distributed to farmers in the Otjozondjupa region of Namibia at 11 weeks, when they’re still young enough to bond with the herds of goats and sheep they will be protecting, snake avoidance classes begin when the CCF puppies are just seven weeks old.
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