Meet Ravi

Whenever I talk about the farm, I always bring up Ravi within the first few minutes. I mention the fact that he is a guard llama, and most people always ask for me to repeat myself at least once. The idea of a llama guarding something seems so absurd that people refuse to let the phrase enter their consciousness without it being spoken slowly several times. I first heard of guard llamas this summer at Gentle Giant, and at first I thought Greg and Maureen had decided to see how gullible I am. 

They weren’t lying. Guard llamas do exist, and there are two of them on this farm. It’s their job to protect the sheep from any coyotes who get too curious about all of those cute sheep they might’ve spotted from the woods. While there are two llamas here, they each watch over their own flock of sheep because llamas do better solo.

Tina watches over a flock of about 40 sheep. She is alert and protective, but she also refuses to let me or Lesley pet her. She keeps a close eye on us whenever we enter the sheep pen, but she’s made it clear that she won’t be coming to our place for dinner anytime soon. Ravi, on the other hand, is a hyperactive little fellow who loves attention and can be quite affectionate.

While I was doing research on guard llamas, I came across all kinds of studies that demonstrated their effectiveness as livestock guardians. There is something quite wonderful about seeing graphs and charts that analyze the performance of guard llamas, and I’ve included one of my favorite pie charts below. It is taken from a survey of 145 farmers who use guard llamas.