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In Waterton Lakes National Park, an extraordinary dog has an extraordinary job.
Jill is a border collie tasked with adapting her sheep herding skills to a far more athletic animal.
Mule deer; and during this year’s fawning season her job is to move the adults out of town so no fawns are born in within its limits.
Over the last few years Parks Canada staff in Waterton have noticed an increase in the number of deer in town as well as their aggressive behaviour.
The deer come to the town because it’s a safe-haven from predators; and the hope is that by chasing them out,
less people will get hurt, the deer will fawn in a more natural environment, and the number of large predators coming to the townsite to hunt will be reduced.
With as many as 100 deer in Waterton at any given time, Jill has a formidable challenge.
Even modest herding can cause the deer to scatter making a bad situation worse.
So easy does it, from east to west, Jill puts slow pressure on the deer to keep them in control.
This group goes easily, but another group is proving more difficult. They have turned back and she must cut them off before being set back to square one.
Its over the bridge in the right direction and now the challenge is to keep them together as they move through yards and around buildings.
Her persistence pays off and the deer are moved up the hill out of town.
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