My sister intends to keep sheep; where you have sheep, you soon enough have coyotes. Llamas have a dubious view of coyotes, and are marginally more tractable than mules, so she has llamas. The llamas look, more or less inescapably, like they know they were really drawn by Dr. Seus, and are just daring one to say anything about it.
A good friend lost all his sheep (and the goats) to the mountain lions. I don't know about llamas, but I hear alpaca are yummy.
ReplyDeleteMountain lions are -- fortunately for purposes of raising sheep -- not currently reliably attested for Ontario. (More apex predators would be a good sign, ecologically, even if it might make some aspects of birding more challenging.)
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how llamas cope with a pounce-from-ambush predator; not much idea how mountain lions cope with a tight herd of potential prey, either. They seem prone to going for individuals running along paths. (There are places they dis-recommend jogging in BC for this reason...)
Tasty I can't speak to; raised for meat, certainly, but I'd have trouble eating something that looks like it was drawn by Dr. Seuss.
I've always wanted to meet a llama.
ReplyDeleteIs sister planning on sheep for meat, wool or both? Rare breeds? What about shearing the llamas as well? There's a lot of interest in novel fibres in the handspinning crowd.
Sheep mostly for wool, I believe.
ReplyDeleteThey're Icelandic sheep; I don't know if that's a rare breed or not.
So far as I understand it, the llamas have to be shorn to keep them from heat prostration in summer in the central climate; they're a creature of the Altiplano, and it's much warmer here than they're adapted for.