Though its is without question one of the most beautiful images to see a seemingly wild animal greet its former human cares in the African bush, it reminds us that wild animals need to be exactly that .... wild.

Like many species on earth humans have symbiotic relationships with other species such as Figs and Fig Wasps, Termites and Fungus, the only difference being that Humans have adapted to so many environments that we have created an extraordinary amount of these relationships. Whilst it is benificial for humans to create animals with a reliance on us, that reliance is only benificial if we can sustain it. Unfortunately some animals use us to their advantage such as Rats and Mice. It is in our interest to minimise their population in our artificial created abundance, after all they also carry with them other organisms that use them. This can be done in two ways, eliminating their numbers when they achieve a point that is detrimental to our population or to limit their access to our abundance and therefor their numbers.

I am always so perturbed when I see careless humans feeding and therefor increasing the probable populations of either parasitic animals or turning otherwise self sufficient animals into parasites. Usually it is these humans that are unaware or absent from the repercussions of their actions. Campers who stay for short periods are often the guilty ones for feeding bears or coyotes in the forests of North America and are usually not hanging around to see what happens when these animals return with their increased ofspring to get the easy feed. More common it is the holidaying humans at the beach resorts feeding seagulls that creat a dependance of those animals on a food supply that is totally reliant on those humans that have since returned to their gull free homes.

We as humans must be responsible for all domestic animals in our care and need to have clear lines between what is wild and leave them to their natural habitats which involves both the protection of habitats from human development and also the control of wild and feral animals when they have access to human induced habitats. For example if large amounts of food was available to feral rats their populations would increase significantly and it would be essential for humans to control that population growth to ensure there is not corresponding problems associated with the growth and also so there is not mass deaths which would occur when that artificial food supply is withdrawn.

Within our realm of symbiotic species that through thousands of years have worked out a balance are dogs. They are my favourite species of animal. and can often fulfill peoples desires to have animals in their own homes. They are great companions well suited to human cohabitation by and large and fulfill many other needs humans have.

Even within dogs there is a huge diversity, often this diversity has actually been bred into the dogs over many hundreds if not thousands of years. It is this controlled breeding by humans which has led to the incredible numbers of dogs in the world today some estimates put the number at 300 million with the overwhelming majority in the care or service of humans. Today most dogs of the world are bred as companion animals which is a far cry from only 100 years ago when most dogs were purpose bred for a service life. Many dogs however are still purpose bred for a particular task. One such type of dog is the Livestock Guardian Dog, the LGD comes from many breeds such as the Anatolian Shepherd,Pyrenees and the Maremma. I several Maremmas working on my farm and assist people in training their Maremmas for service across Australia. The Maremma is a magnificent large animal with dark skin pigments and a pure white coat and a deceptively friendly appearance.

Unfortunately like John and Ace many people are purchasing Maremmas and other LGD's for urban pets either unaware or ignorant of their breed traits and just like John and Ace these owners soon realise they have a potential problem on their hands of an animal totally unsuited to their urban environment. No doubt the young men and the many urban owners of working breeds know too well what these magnificent animals are suited to do and that in itself is much of the attraction, it is the little attention they give to the consequences of bringing such animals into their unnatural environments that is the problem. Luckily for Christian his London based owners were able to find someone in Africa that was able to rehabilitate hime and return him to his natural environment unfortunately many Maremmas who are been kept in urban areas are unable to be returned to their suited environments and can only be euthanised.

As a dog trainer and behaviourist I am contacted often by owners of Maremmas who are having difficulties with the animal and most did not do enough research on the breed and unfortuantely all were not given proper breed information by the breeders. Maremmas are genetically prediposed to protect what they see as creatures in their care which can be anything from children to penguins they do this by being very noisy and aggressive to anything they see as a threat to those in their care. This results in so many householders complaining that their Maremmas have ..... done their job which is barking often, attacking other dogs and guests, biting children without any warning. Also as they were bred to be in the open range the dogs have thick coats that molt often which leave homes covered in white hair.

There are so many animals appropriate for urban homes.... Lions and Maremmas are two that are not.