Reality is Overrated!

I’m getting lotsa requests for cloaks this year. And that’s nice, because various hoods and capes are my favourites within medieval clothes. Also I can try new designs and materials. The most interesting cloaks this far were made of fleece.

“No foxes have killed penguins in the past seven years”

This is clever. Very clever. Sheepdogs are bred and trained to protect sheep against wolves, but that doesn’t mean that their skills can’t be used to protect different animals against other species of predators. This is exactly what the Maremma Project did on Warrnambool’s Middle Island, off the south coast of Australia. They took Maremma sheepdogs, a breed originally from central Italy, and brought them to the island to protect a dwindling and seriously endangered population of Little Penguins from foxes.

The situation was dire around seven years ago when the sheepdogs were introduced: Where a colony of around 1,500 Little Penguins once thrived, only 4 breeding pairs remained. The colony was truly on the brink of extinction, at least on the island.. The last census showed about 200 breeding adults, but most importantly, not one Little Penguin has been killed by a fox since their dog bodyguards landed on the island! [x]

Fun fact: Arizona is the only place in the country where the state mine inspector is an elected position