What does a guardian llama protect goats from?

Some of them stray away from the herd. Males can get in fight. They may be attacked by some other animals.

Just my thoughts.

The Dalai Lama, of course.

@elbanditoroso Llama lo?

Coyotes, bears, dogs, foxes, and sometimes even mountain lions. They are good sentries.

The Lama

The one-l lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-l llama,
He’s a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-l lllama.*
—Ogden Nash

to which Nash appended the footnote
*The author’s attention has been called to a type of conflagration known
as a three-alarmer. Pooh.

Guard llamas can protect goats, sheep, alpacas, and sometimes poultry.

Most guard llamas should more accurately be called sentry llamas. My Maxine’s job is to keep a sharp eye on the surrounding woods (the goats have sharp senses in their own right but they are not nearly so alert), to give the alarm at sight of danger (they whinny loudly), to herd the goats away from the danger, to round up strays, to stand between the herd and danger, to mark their territory (llama smell discourages the presence of predators), and to look big and weird to confuse predators about what the herd is.

Some llamas will go the step further and attack marauding dogs – they have a natural hatred of canines and have been known to stomp aggressive dogs to death. But they should not be expected to take on a pack of coyotes or a bear or mountain lion – for that one needs livestock guardian dogs. Llamas are very intelligent and, despite their aversion to dogs, can learn to work together with LGDs to protect the flock – llama on defense, LGDs on offence.

Not all llamas have the temperament to be guardians; some become annoyed by their charges or aren’t very watchful. The event that showed me Maxine is an excellent guard llama was a month or so back. Our dog – not an LGD but a good farm dog – alerted to something in the woods and ran down to investigate. A minute later we saw her being chased back towards the house by a young black bear. The llama and all the goats were down in the pasture, maybe half a football field from the bear. The llama immediately herded the goats up to the barn, came back and rounded up the two that strayed, stood between the barn and the field for a good ten minutes after the bear was gone, then came back into the field and marked her territory. We were VERY impressed.

@zenvelo Great article, thanks for sharing. We will definitely pursue that WFEN certification.

Fun bit of trivia – you may have heard that the “come” call for chickens is “chick-chick-chick” and the one for pigs is “suuu-eee”. The one for llamas is “llama-llama-llama” :oD

Now I want a guardian llama!

@janbb Most small ruminant producers around here wouldn’t be without one. Besides her obvious value as a guard, we just love Maxine’s company; she is the most laid back animal, and so smart and beautiful. Someone trained her well – she will walk like a perfect lady on a halter and even picks her foot up for the trimmer. And I can’t wait till spring comes and we shear her so I can spin all that lovely fiber.

Yes, for the reasons @zenvelo mentions.
My neighbors had a guardian Llama ” Hercules” for years watching over their sheep and mini-donkeys, lots of coyotes in the area and mountain lions too. They might scare off dogs or coyotes by charging and stomping and kicking but a mountain lion in CA. just recently slaughtered about 5 Alpacas and a goat in one night. A Llama is no match for a lion, about the same size as a deer and just as tasty. haha

A mtn lion also just nabbed a neighbors old goat over here about 6 weeks ago. Cougars will go for whatever they think they can take down with relative ease and drag off to cache.

Where I live, there are some alpaca farms.

The parents of one of my daughter’s friends lives on and takes care of an alpaca farm. The owners are rich, and the wife handles the alpaca part of the business, for which I know they receive tax subsidies. In addition to the tax subsidies, they sell the wool, and they sell the alpacas themselves, and they sell breeding rights from the males. So there’s a ton of money to be made with alpacas!

And here is a video of a goat and a llama

@wildpotato That was an awesome description and explanation! Thanks!