Atlas
There has been a flurry of emotion on the internet recently following a man being bitten by an alpaca and being air-lifted to a hospital. Alpaca haters (can you believe there are such persons?) are getting a kick out of the idea that cute, cuddly-looking critters could hurt someone. These same people would probably go see a movie about killer bunnies.
The story is shocking and does raise some questions.
How Can An Alpaca Hurt You?
Fighting Teeth
We usually see pictures of alpacas when they are at their cutest. As an industry, and myself personally – we can’t help but share the cuteness. However, we must remember that there are grown males in the alpaca world. Males with testosterone. Males who just wanna breed. (That’s how we get those cute babies so it works for us).
Male alpacas get what are called “fighting teeth” at the back of their mouths on the sides. In the wild this is one of the only weapons alpaca males would have to fight each other for doiminance and the right to breed the females. It is customary to cut male alpaca’s fighting teeth, which are very sharp and pointy like a shark’s tooth, as they come in. On our farm we check males for fighting teeth several times a year. These teeth come in as the males reaches sexual maturity. We check yearlings and up. If the alpaca has fighting teeth that need to be trimmed, we use obstetric wire and saw them off. The process takes a minute or two, and then your alpaca is “safe” and ready to go. Often this only has to be done once in a male’s lifetime.
What happens if you don’t cut the fighting teeth? They can puncture a herdmate while fighting or “play” fighting. Adult alpaca males are generally housed together and spend some of their time neck wrestling and chasing each other around. This is something they do playfully, as well as seriously to establish dominance. Alpacas have distinct personalities and they have a pecking order and social roles.
For example, in the early years of our alpaca herd, we had two boys with strong personalities. Atlas had a lot of presence. He was all about being the top dog. He had to be the leader of the herd. We joked that he slept with one eye open. It was so important to Atlas that he be in charge that he was ever vigilant that another alpaca would try to take that role away from him. More »
August 27th, 2009 | Tags: alpaca, Alpacas, body slamming, fighting teeth, males fighting, playing with alpacas, safety | Category: Alpacas, Handling/Training, Husbandry | Comments (15)
The lighting in this picture and the way he is obviously not wanting to go forward reminds me of the movie “Poltergeist”. “Go into the light, Carol Ann!”
