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The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) evaluated around 120 dogs from three large breeds from Europe and Asia bred to be gentle around sheep and children but vicious when confronting wolves. The four-year study was carried out by the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center and tested how these dogs did guarding livestock against wolves and coyotes in the western US.
[...] Young and her colleagues zeroed in on areas where dogs had been bred to protect livestock from wolves and brown bears. They selected three breeds for the study: Cao de Gado Transmontanos, originally from the mountains of Portugal; Karakachans, bred by nomadic shepherds in Bulgaria; and Kangals, developed to guard livestock in Turkey. The dogs were gathered as puppies and sent to the U.S., where they were used to guard 65 herds of sheep in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon.
Another finding was that when the owner and the dogs had a closer bond, the dogs performed their jobs much better. Something that might not be commonly realized in areas where they are kept exclusively for companionship or entertainment is that the different breeds of dogs are bred to gravitate to and specialize in particular activities: they have jobs they like doing.
From The Scientist : The Breeds of Guard Dogs that Best Protect Livestock: Study (2018)
and The Associated Press : Imported guard dogs deployed as part of US wolf-sheep study (2018)
and Agri-Pulse : Got wolves? USDA brings on the big dogs (2014).
(Score: 5, Informative) by ilPapa on Wednesday March 14 2018, @06:34AM (1 child)
If you think scientists are "relatively privileged people", you don't know any. Forget the effort it takes to get a PhD in a STEM field, but then you work as a post-doc or research assistant for less than minimum wage, go for years without any kind of benefits, put up with horrible working conditions, have to teach knuckleheaded undergrads and CS majors, and then maybe you work your way up to an adjunct position where you make poverty-level wages and still have no fucking benefits. It takes maybe three or four adjunct positions to make enough money to pay rent and buy food. Then, you are expected to publish to keep your miserable little existence going. The only jobs are one year contracts (at most) and you just arrive at some research institution in time to start sending out your resume again.
In my day (I'm a retired academic), it was different. We were privileged, especially those of us in the Humanities. Man, I had a tenure track position at age 24 and didn't have to worry about anything but banging coeds until I got married six years later. I get a nice pension, people call me doctor and I still get to travel as a fellow and occasionally lecture and act like a big shot. Because I was one of the last of my breed. Nowadays, academia is almost as fucked up as the tech sector. Those gravy days are over.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday March 14 2018, @03:56PM
But academics are still nowhere near the bottom of the pyramid. I know truck drivers, mechanics, farmers, also not the bottom of the pyramid, but a little closer. From that point of view academics look pretty privileged. Yeah, the initial education thing is a bit of a pain but it has its benefits. In my experience most academics undervalue and under-utilise the non-monetary compensations. Travel, for instance. I'm not horribly up to date myself but I did a lot of travel, often the department wanted to be able to "show the flag" so to speak, to claim attendance at events that are important to the field, but people didn't want to go. Can you believe that? People were too busy to go to Rome, or to Milan, or to Berlin, or whatever. Too much of a hassle to pack a bag. Reasonable expenses paid. It's true, we flew in the cheapest seats, and if we wanted fancy motels or fancy restaurants we would need to spend our own money, but a lot of people could still only dream of going at all. I felt quite privileged. A modern mandarin.
Alas, I have no doubt that you're right the environment has gotten worse in that sector, as it seems to do everywhere.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?