A new Guardian for our Barnyard

Meet Monarch, the latest edition to our small farm. Llamas are an interesting and somewhat unusual animal in our area. They are related to the camel, family camelidae, as are the alpacas.

My husband had heard that a llama can keep wild animals away from livestock. Monarch seems so mild and gentle that I don’t see him chasing away wild animals. We will see. He does seem to be bonding nicely with the goats. I named him Monarch because he has such a regal look about him when he is sitting on the hillside overlooking the barn.

When threatened, a llama may spit at the offender. They aren’t actually spitting; they vomit partially fermented food from their first stomach. They don’t usually spit at people. Spitting is a dominance behavior among themselves or it is used to chase off predators, kind of like a skunk does.