It is becoming a widely popular practice for farmers in Australia to introduce alpacas into their flocks or herds, but not for company, although
alpacas are gregarious creatures.
Alpacas have a peculiar protective instinct, and once one is ‘familiar’ with a flock or herd, they become a kicking, spitting guardian angel. Yes, spitting. Spitting is an alpaca’s main line of defence. They have different degrees of spitting. On one end of the spectrum is a mild *phew*.
This one is mostly air and is used to signal irritation – a bit like a sneeze. On the other end is the very angry spit. This one involves green nasty
stuff from the depths of the alpaca’s rumen (stomach). It is usually reserved for a fierce disagreement with a herd mate or the veterinarian and it
does smell – bad.
In a farm situation, alpacas provide protection against dingos and wild dogs, make loud noises to alert mothers that foxes and dogs are about,
and unnerve foxes by eyeballing them. Foxes and most other predators don’t like being watched and nobody likes being spat at.
The alpaca’s soft spot has spurred stories of things such as alpacas taking special care of ewes and cows with twins and those which have lost their
mothers, foxes not eating fox baits in the neighbour’s paddock due to fear of alpacas in the next paddock, and dead lambs left lying in paddocks for days
without being eaten by predators. Also, sheep have been seen hiding under alpacas to escape from a pack of town dogs, alpacas stopping dingoes and
foxes from eating calf tongues during birth, alpacas protecting free range chooks and chasing away crows and other birds. They’ve even lead sheep to
safety during bushfires!
More facts about the alpaca:
As in the picture above, alpacas can be in charge of livestock that is very important money-wise to its farmer.
Alpacas themselves can be expensive too. Depending on the breeding, males can be anywhere from $1,000, all the way up to the high tens of thousands!
Females are generally more, again depending on their ancestors and potential breeding.
The alpaca originated in South America, along with the llama and were an extremely important part of the Incan society and religion. They were thought to be a gift to mankind from the gods, and soon the Inca’s whole trade system was reliant on the alpaca’s wool. They even recorded amounts with knots of alpaca wool rope.
As far as comparisons between llamas and alpacas go they’re very similar, but the most prominent difference is their size. Llamas will grow to around twice the size of an alpaca, with an alpaca being up to 90cm at the shoulder and a llama 120cm. The other major difference is their wool quality. Alpacas are treasured for their wool, but make poor carrying creatures, whereas the llama is the opposite.
Caring for alpacas is relatively simple, as they are herbivores and will just graze. They are very easily trained and are curious. However they are easily disturbed so rushing at them, clinging to them or in particular touching their head, they may well cause them to give you a spit. The best approach is to treat them gently and let them come to you, until they are comfortable eating out of your hand and being led.
