Sheepdogs Trained to Deter Bears and Wolves Guard Christmas Turkeys

Italian sheepdogs Bear and Holly kept some 600 turkeys safe from predators in the run-up to Christmas.

Bear, two, and Holly, four, took their duties of protecting the hundreds of birds from foxes and other animals seriously at Nempnett Pastures, in Blagdon, near Bristol, southwest England. They are Maremmano-Abruzzese sheepdogs, strong dogs originally bred to herd sheep and protect them from bears and wolves in the Alps—the highest mountain range in Europe.

Bear has been with Nempnett Pastures farmer George Ford since he was a puppy and Holly joined the family after being re-homed last year.

This year the duo worked together to guard the 600 turkeys raised outside and in portable shelters since June this year.

Due to their different backgrounds, Bear and Holly have separate approaches to how they deal with maintaining order among hundreds of turkeys.

"Bear is very considerate and very gentle and quite protective as well," Ford told Newsweek.

"Holly is kind of a bit more bolshie and she would run through them (the turkeys) as though they are not there, whereas Bear would just go round or gently go through them. But she is still very protective and will see off anything that she does not like the look of."

While free-range turkeys could be kept outside in the same fixed area, Ford's approach to pasture-raising the birds means they have moved around regularly and they use portable shelters.

"We think it's good because before our free-range area was just overgrazed and turned into mud quite quickly and we found the outside space gives the birds more space," Ford said.

The regular movement means the birds could be more vulnerable to predators, such as foxes, which is where Bear and Holly step in.

Both dogs did their job well, protecting the turkeys, which were slaughtered earlier this month, and they used their loud barks to ward off predatory birds as well as foxes and badgers.

By relying on Bear and Holly, Ford does not search out and kill the predators and instead maintains the diversity of the area while keeping the turkeys safe.

According to a 2019 Statista online study about Christmas dishes, more than half of Americans ate turkey that year.

The study asked 1,002 American adults what dishes they were planning to have, with mashed potatoes coming top with 60 percent, cookies at 53 percent and stuffing at 52 percent.

Turkey was the fifth-most popular item with 51 percent saying they would eat the bird that year.