IN RESPONSE TO OUR REQUEST FOR ARTICLES ABOUT YOUR LLAMAS, here's an adventure by a heroic llama, Chex, written by Meg Steensland. Thank you, Meg!

Llama Routs Coyote - Saves 11 Sheep!
by Meg Steensland

On Tuesday, August 9, 2005 ~ 10:45 PM, my neighbor called to report a commotion at the road pasture beside a bean field next to his house on US Highway 42 in central OH. We both drove cars over and pulled off the road – shining car lights on a llama caught as he was trying to jump the fence about 3 posts in from the road. We got the llama MFL HEAVY RUNNER'S CHEX, a young gelding, off the fence and into a halter. I left the car and walked him to the next house (mine), where the barn was. It is rather a long walk along another bean field. In the barn lights, I could see that he was cut up from the fence on his underside, so I sprayed a disinfectant on him and left him in the barn with a pasture companion I was readying for a show on Friday. Overnight, I decided he had to go back to his owners at Mohican Forrest Lamas to determine if he needed further attention. I took him back and reported the incident to Les Roth who said the llama likely was so intent on the coyote, he probably just ran right at the fence. At that time, we were just guessing it as a coyote as Chex had been pastured here more than a month with no known escape quests.

I left Chex at his home recovering. When I got back home, I walked the part of the pasture near the highway and looked more closely at the sheep – I had counted in the morning light but did not inspect. I found one sheep, a yearling, Katahdin, with dirty scratch marks on her, but no skin breaks (see photo to left). I did not find marks on any of the others, including 5 Jacob adults and four 2005 lambs.

There were two female llamas in the pasture who apparently chose to stay with the sheep while Chex persued the predator. At this writing, it is unclear if Chex will come back to my pasture. It would be nice if we could predict that he learned just to chase and then stop at the fence, but we cannot presume that. Maybe hanging some reflectors on the fence would be a good idea.