100 Dogs Who Changed Civilization Read Free Page B

Russell terrier named Bothie, got to visit both the top and the bottom of the world without ever even laying eyes on a sled.
    The little dog belonged to famed British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his wife, Virginia. He was acquired in 1977, two years before the couple left on the Transglobe Expedition to circumnavigate the planet via the poles, a trek they had planned for the better part of a decade. By aircraft and ship, they would travel around the world from pole to pole, first visiting Antarctica, then finishing up at the Arctic.
    Bothie couldn’t go on the first leg of the expedition, which cut through Africa. The threat of disease and the extreme heat were considered too much for him. But once the group took to the seas on their own ship, the little terrier was flown in, equipped with his own harness to tether him to the deck during rough weather. He was also spared the long overland trek to the heart of Antarctica. Once the expedition reached that goal in January 1980, he was brought in by plane and furnished withcold-weather gear that included special caps, booties, and body stockings.
    Many months later, Bothie completed the feat at the North Pole. It was the crowning moment of the Transglobe Expedition, which began in 1979 and concluded on August 29, 1982. Not surprisingly, Bothie became a celebrity. He was voted Great Britain’s Pet of the Year in 1982, and in 1983 he was allowed to do a circuit of honor in the show ring at Crufts, the world’s most prestigious dog show. But perhaps even better, Bothie found a girlfriend during his adventures. While in the Yukon he met an enormous Newfoundland-husky-Labrador cross who was named Black Dog by her human associates. Thetwo spent the rest of the trip together, and, after being parted for several months in mandatory quarantine once they got to Great Britain, remained a couple thereafter.

JET
THE DOG WHO BECAME AN AIR
TRAFFIC CONTROLLER

    The threat of midair collisions with birds is an ever-present danger at airports around the world. In the United States alone, roughly 2,500 such bird strikes take place annually. These close encounters are almost universally deadly to the foul, and they’re no picnic for human pilots, either. A midair run-in can shatter a jetliner’s cockpit windows or cause a catastrophic loss of thrust if the avian victim is sucked into an engine.
    That’s why airports spend a great deal of time and money trying to keep crows, geese, and other potential flight hazards from nesting around their runways. Over the years, airports have used everything from firecrackers to smoke bombs to trained falcons. All of these remedies proved expensive, complicated, and not very effective. But in 1999, Southwest Florida International Airport became the first major airport to deploy what has become the most technically advanced, highly effective answer to the problem—a dog named Jet.
    The two-year-old border collie turned out to be an excellent solution. After extensive training he was sent out with airport personnel to patrol the grounds. Whenever flocks picked roosting spots that were too close to air traffic corridors, Jetwould “encourage” them to leave by charging in unannounced, putting them to flight. His herding-dog background was a key advantage. Jet could be counted on to drive off the birds without harming them. And because his movements are so similar to those of stalking foxes or coyotes, the birds never became blasé about his presence, the way they so often did with other deterrents such as firecrackers and smoke bombs.
    In 1998, the year before Jet arrived, there were sixteen bird strikes at the airport. During his first year on the job, the number dropped to four, and it remained in the single digits thereafter. The program proved so effective that a new border collie named Radar was recruited to replace Jet when he retired in 2001. Other airports have taken note and purchased their own bird-chasing