This story of Costa illustrates the hardiness of the Newfoundland dog breed. The breed is said to be very friendly and good with children. They are a large breed. This, I believe, helped Costa survive for five months in the wilds of Wales, UK during winter. It was a harsh winter and Wales is very wet. It’s said that the Newfoundland can survive or cope with very low temperatures far better than humans.
Story of survival
The story would back that up. The Times reports on Costa who went missing on September 30. He had just been picked up by his new owners from a rescue center in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, called Green Acres Rescue Center.
He’s a timid dog somewhat uncertain with strangers and he bolted from their car in the St David area. It seems that his “incredible nervousness” prevented him from approaching people and so he stayed in the wild.
The interesting aspect of this story other than this dog’s hardiness is the extensive and clever method employed by volunteers of the Drone Search and Rescue for Lost Dogs group to find him, trap him and return him to the rescue center.
Gemma and Steve Bamford are members of this group. They employed Ring doorbell cameras attached to broom handles in a 200 m area. The cameras were connected wirelessly to their computers via a 4G router in a waterproof box.
There were fears that Costa had died because there were no sightings for about a month. There were only intermittent sightings in any case and two rather vague photographs which might not have been him were obtained. Costa never settled in one spot. He continued to travel but tended to hover around a farm about 3 miles from where he had gone missing.
There was joy when he was picked up on the cameras. They then had to trap him and used more elaborate techniques to do that. They set up a trap in the form of a cage with an infrared detection beam which would bring down the door once he was inside the cage.
Gemma takes up the story:
“First, we put food around the trap so he didn’t feel threatened, then we moved food inside the trap but without setting the door, then once he had been inside the next time we set the trap. We left and went about 2 miles away to a motor home to remotely view the cameras and he was caught about 10 minutes after we laid the food.”
As mentioned, despite spending five months in the wilderness of Wales, the three-year-old dog was given a clean bill of health by a veterinarian. Gemma said that he was very lucky to have survived a horrendous winter but perhaps it wasn’t so much about luck but about the hardiness of this dog breed.
Costa was taken back to the Green Acres Rescue Center from where he will be rehomed. At the centre he’s been crashing out sleeping and eating. He’s at a place that he knows and with which he is familiar.
Mikey Lawlor, from the center said:
“Costa has mostly been crashed out sleeping and relaxing, knowing he’s safe. For a dog on the run for five months, finding his own food, he is by no means emaciated or underweight, he’s not in a bad condition at all. His coat’s a bit tatty, but I was expecting him to be far worse. It’s been really tough for him; cold, snow all that rain.”
My thanks to The Times newspaper for this story.
