Unimaginable footage exhibiting guard canine stopping a puma from looking sheep within the pitch black Patagonian mountains has been captured utilizing warmth delicate cameras and drones. It’s the first time this habits has ever been filmed.
The clip was filmed as a part of “Animals Up Shut With Bertie Gregory,” a brand new Nationwide Geographic collection that takes viewers to distant areas all over the world taking a look at creatures up shut of their every day lives. Within the episode “Patagonia Puma,” Gregory — a Nationwide Geographic Explorer — and his group go to a distant, mountainous area of Patagonia in southern Chile. Their purpose was to seize the lives of pumas (Puma concolor) and the challenges they face — together with their coexistence with farmers, who’ve traditionally killed pumas that hunt their livestock.
Within the footage, filmed on a sheep farm in the midst of the evening, Gregory and cameraman Sam Stewart use thermal imaging cameras and a drone to see into the darkness. On the high of a ridge, they spot a puma creeping down the mountainside straight on the sheep. “They’ve completely no concept that it is there,” Stewart mentioned whereas filming the scene.
Associated: Watch bear and wolf assault moose mother and calf at identical time in uncommon, exceptional footage
The puma hops the farm’s fence with ease and is in with the sheep, prepared for the kill, however the canine sense one thing and begin barking. The puma steps away and jumps again over the fence earlier than retreating up the hill.
Searching pumas has been unlawful in Chile because the early Eighties, however it’s nonetheless generally practiced in personal land. Conservation tasks now work with farmers to make use of non-lethal technique of defending sheep, together with fences, monitoring collars and specialised guard canine, akin to Maremma and Nice Pyrenees Sheepdogs — highly effective breeds with lengthy, thick coats appropriate for dwelling within the freezing Patagonian panorama.
The Nat Geo footage reveals the canine in motion.
“If the farmer’s resolution is to shoot the pumas, that is not really an excellent resolution,” Gregory instructed Stay Science. “In the event you shoot a type of pumas their territory in a short time will get occupied by one other puma from a neighboring piece of territory, so the issue continues. Not solely are you killing pumas… you are additionally not fixing the issue.”
Gregory mentioned he met a unique farmer who used to shoot pumas however realized it wasn’t serving to shield his flock. “He instructed me about this one farm the place they used to kill 100 pumas per 12 months… after the canine have been launched to guard the flock from the pumas, the farmer misplaced simply two sheep.” The farmer now breeds a particular sort of sheep canine that protects sheep from predators, and provides them to different farms. Gregory’s footage is the primary time this canine deterrent has been filmed working.
“I could not discover wherever the place anybody had really seen or filmed the interplay between the canine and the pumas” mentioned Gregory. “We filmed that interplay between the pumas [and] the canine for the primary time.”
“Animals Up Shut With Bertie Gregory” is offered to stream on Disney+ from Sept. 13.