Alpacas may have a reputation for spitting, but the animals’ foul spray makes them highly effective guard animals, protecting lambs and other stock from wild dogs and birds of prey.
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Audio Script:
Now to some pretty antisocial activities – spitting. Queensland cane farmer Josie Bugeja says that alpacas are spitting specialists, and the strategy helps protect other stock against wild dogs and aerial predators like hawks.
Josie breeds alpacas, and she told Nicky Redl that they are the perfect bodyguards for stock.
JOSIE BUGEJA: Alpacas as guard animals are very, very good. They use them a lot down south, on sheep farms, cattle farms, to the small hobby farm ones. And what they do, they actually guard the sheep, especially when it comes for lambing time. Because down there they have the foxes, while up here we have the dingoes. And they have the big hawks that come down, and they pick up the baby lambs and just cart them away.
But with the male, they are wethered alpacas, which means they are castrated males; they will actually protect the herd. If it’s, say, a bird comes down, they will spit. And they will spit from the bottom of their stomach, and it’s actually vile stuff. And this deters them. The bird will fly away, and the lamb stays on the ground.
And also with the foxes that come in, and wild dogs and stuff, they will actually pound. If they can get the dog down, which, usually, the dog sort of whimpers down, they will pound the dog to death. But I think the main thing is their spit. I mean, you get some of that on you, you don’t want to stick around (laughs). Vile stuff… (continues)
Broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Bush Telegraph in 2010.