Alpacas are very alert animals with good eyesight and an innate dislike for canines and foxes.
Farmers are using the alpaca’s instincts to achieve increases in lambing percentages by running a couple of alpacas in lambing flocks to protect ewes and lambs. These alpaca’s quickly bond with the flock and become their guardians.
How do they protect?
Alpacas have a number of ways in which they defend the animals they are guarding:
they will make a loud whistling noise, to alert the animals they are guarding, that foxes and or dogs are about;
they will unnerve foxes by eyeballing them;
they will pursue foxes and chase them away; and
if necessary they stamp at or on the predator with their front feet, rising off the ground onto their back legs if necessary before bringing their front legs down with considerable speed and force.
Alpacas, when provoked in such a fashion, are very fast and will catch the predator in a short distance.
"Many sheep breeders have reported their best-ever lambing percentages following the introduction of guardian alpacas." ALPACAS AS HERD PROTECTORS, ALPACA NOTE 6 Prepared by Australian Alpaca Association - full fact sheet.
Want to know more?
Check out the following articles for interesting details:
Alpaca guard squad makes good, Brian Clancy, June 10, 2009, Weekly Times
How do alpacas protect herds of sheep etc.?, Yahoo Answers
Alpaca herd protectors, By Stephanie Boulet, 12/06/2009, ABC Rural NSW
Guard Animals for Livestock Protection: Existing and Potential Use in Australia, David J Jenkins, 2003, NSW Agriculture, Department of Primary Industry
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