Herders using dogs to keep pumas at bay

Ezequiel, one of 13 guardian dogs that have been trained and given to Argentine herders to ward off pumas and foxes. (Photo by Federico Gregorio)

Every December, Mario Soto and his wife Julieta spend a day on horseback along with their two children, herding their 300 goats to the Andean uplands for summer grazing just as the couple’s parents and grandparents did before them. The goats will feast on fresh summer grasses in the high mountain valley, located 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) above sea level, while the lowland pastures they left behind are given time to recover. Then in March, the family will move the herd back down to its winter grazing grounds. Raising livestock is not easy in Malargüe, an enormous municipality in Argentina’s central-west province of Mendoza. Given the arid and mountainous region’s extreme temperatures, frequent drought and low-quality grasses, it’s no wonder that cattle and crop-farming operations are scarce. Yet production of livestock—now overwhelmingly goats and to a lesser extent sheep—has been an important economic activity since... Read more →