Three-hour old male cria and his mother Storm, a two-and-half-year-old alpaca. PHOTO BY KATIELEE ARROWSMITH/SWNS
A newborn alpaca was up and about just an hour after being born.
The unnamed cria was born to first-time mom Storm at 12:20 p.m. on July 12 and was standing up by 1:20 p.m.
The young male, who is silver in color, was born at Almond Valley, Livingston, Scotland, and is in a field with six others.
More babies are expected this year, and Storm was born there two-and-a-half years ago.
The cria is expected to be running round the paddock by the end of the week.
Farm manager Craig Holmes, 35, said: “We normally leave it a few days to announce it but the baby was up on his feet and seemed strong.
“He is Storm’s first baby, she was also born here.
“It is quite a complicated process, they are normally pregnant for 11 months.
“You can scan them but it is a lot harder.”
Instead a process called “spit off” is used.
After having a romp in the grass, the male and female alpacas are then reintroduced a few weeks later.
If the female spits at the male it indicates she is pregnant, rather than lying down for another mating session.
Craig added: “It is a lot harder to identify through a scanner, it might not pick it up so we use ‘spit off’ instead.
“They start of small and scrawny but grow quickly.
“Within a week it will be running round the paddock.
“Alpacas are not very intelligent but they are quite pretty.
“We will run a competition to name him.
“He’s in a field with the rest of the herd.
“We are expecting more alpaca babies this year.
“We have a barn in case the weather is bad.”
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
Edited by Saba Fatima and Asad Ali
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