Maremma Sheepdog: The Dogs Who Saved a Penguin Colony

Off the coast of Victoria, Australia, sits Middle Island, once home to a thriving colony of Little Penguins. European red foxes discovered they could reach the island at low tide, and the penguin population collapsed — from nearly 1,000 birds down to fewer than 10 breeding pairs by 2005, genuinely on the edge of extinction. A local farmer named Swampy Marsh, who'd been using Maremma Sheepdogs to protect his free-range chickens from predators, proposed the same instinct could protect the penguins. In 2006, a world-first conservation project began: two Maremmas, named Eudy and Tula, were trained and placed on Middle Island as the colony's first guardians. The project succeeded, and the true story became the basis for the film Oddball. Maremmas have since also been used to protect other native Australian wildlife, including bandicoots.

The Maremma belongs among the true working LGD breeds covered in our livestock guardian dogs guide, alongside the Caucasian Shepherd, Kangal, and Kuvasz — developed over more than 2,000 years in Italy specifically to live embedded with and protect flocks from wolves and bears. The breed takes its name directly from the Maremma marshland region of Tuscany and Lazio, its historical homeland.

Worth clarifying directly, since the two similarly large white guardian breeds get confused constantly: a Maremma is genuinely not a Great Pyrenees. The Maremma comes from Italy, while the Great Pyrenees originates from the Pyrenees Mountains spanning France and Spain. Great Pyrenees also tend to run larger, carry a longer coat, and are typically less reserved with strangers than the Maremma.

The Maremma today exists in two fairly distinct groups: working dogs maintained by shepherds and farmers, primarily in Italy and increasingly across Europe, and a smaller population of companion or light-duty guardian dogs in English-speaking countries. The working population remains the breed's genetic and temperamental anchor — breeders who prioritize actual working ability tend to produce dogs with more consistent, reliable guardian behavior than lines bred primarily for show conformation.

Maremmas are genuinely not apartment or suburban dogs — they need real space to patrol, ideally with livestock or property to actively guard, and secure fencing is essential given their territorial instincts. They're most content with an actual job, whether that's guarding livestock, poultry, or simply the family property, and can live comfortably outdoors with appropriate shelter while still enjoying time with family indoors.

Working guardian Maremmas often need more calories than companion-only dogs given their activity level. Splitting meals into two daily portions is commonly recommended, both for digestion and to help reduce bloat risk in this large, active breed — and worth knowing that the thick double coat can genuinely hide weight changes, making body condition checks by touch more reliable than visual assessment alone.

Reputable Maremma breeders commonly screen for hip and elbow dysplasia (via OFA or PennHIP evaluation), eye conditions, and heart health, with OFA CHIC certification representing a genuine, checkable health-testing standard worth asking about directly. Lifespan is commonly cited at 10–14 years.