Llamas and the death of a friend.

Hi Marty

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of dear old Hayley.

Regarding your Tip of the Week, I can definitely identify with what you say about animals noticing the death and disposal of another animal. I think Nordica may have thought that the haulers were a great big predator dragging her friend away and maybe she is reluctant to go back to the area where the ‘predator’ appeared. Also, she will be grieving for the loss of her friend and may have been hovering around Brad and the other animals looking for comfort.

After, sadly, losing quite a few of my four-legged friends to old age over the last few years, I've learned that animals are very sensitive to another animal’s death, especially the deaths of their special buddies They seem to recognise when an animal is dead, as opposed to just sleeping, and this spooks them (logical for species that are predator fodder, I guess). For this reason, we now take a lot more notice of how we conduct euthanasia and burial/disposal.

We like to keep the other animals around while one is being euthanased, so the euthanasia ‘patient’ isn’t frightened by being away from his/her friends. However, we now always try to shield the actual act from the eyes of the other animals and we always cover the body with a sheet or tarp before removing it for burial. I’m pretty sure they still know what’s going on, as the following story will illustrate, but somehow not being able to see the body seems to reduce their spookiness.

We once had an old donkey who had to be euthanased. Winston the donkey and our old llama, Ned Kelly, were inseparable and Ned was there when the vet injected Winston. We moved the llamas, including Ned, to another paddock while the backhoe driver hauled Winston’s body away and buried it, so the llamas could not see what was going on, although they could hear the backhoe operating. After the backhoe had gone and we let the llamas out, Ned found Winston's grave and sat beside it for the whole day. He only moved away when darkness fell. The other llamas did not attempt to wander off and leave Ned behind, which would have been their normal behaviour. Instead, they kept a quiet vigil nearby and only moved off when Ned went to join them just before dark.