People always ask me about alpacas guarding smaller animals. This video illustrates the only way alpacas can help guard animals.

They have excellent vision and can spot something a long way off. They will make an alert sound. Each alpaca has a different sound. Some are not very loud, others are louder. Either way you will not hear it in your house.

Spotting it early and alerting is as far as their ability to protect goes. It doesn’t work if there’s no one who can respond to their alert call and take the predator out. Alpacas can’t do that.

Alpacas are small animals, only weighing about as much as people do. A really big alpaca might reach 200 lbs.

They can’t kick hard enough to break a bone like a horse can. They have a soft pad on the bottom of their foot, like a dog, and two toes on each foot. They don’t have claws and they don’t have hooves. They have toenails. I’ve been kicked square a few times and it doesn’t even leave a mark. One alpaca sideswiped me with a kick and all I got was a mild scratch from her toenail. They can only kick backwards. They can’t kick out to the side or forward.

Their spit is nasty, green, slimy, and disgusting to smell, but it won’t deter a predator.

If you have a camera outside with your alpaca so that you can hear their alert, you can come out and protect your animals. If you’re not at home or aren’t watching the monitor when the alpaca alerts, it is just as much in danger as the rest of the animals.

It’s possible that a chicken being attacked by a hawk might be saved by an alpaca because they will try to stomp any small animal that they don’t trust, but once they’ve determined that hawks won’t hurt them, they won’t even alert, much less stomp it.

Having one alpaca is not healthy for the animal. Alpacas feel safer in a herd. You would have to keep at least three alpacas of the same gender to help minimize their level of stress.

So, don’t let anyone try to tell you that alpacas are good guardians without keeping all of these things in mind.

If you have questions about protecting your herd, feel free to reach out to me: (918) 815-1120.