Dear all, How do I begin to get through to/rehabilitate a newly arrived female adult alpaca who is freakishly averse to proximity to people. If she is penned or shedded she jumps over a 4'6" high gate quite easily. After escaping the barn, she ran wildly around a paddock with a highway boundary, looking ready to jump out to play with the traffic. As it is now, she cannot be put into a normal yard for any husbandry, without her trying to jump out immediately. She arrived here 6 weeks ago with 2 adult companions who are both very wary and suspicious, but at least those two will come within 12' to eat hay or muesli. The mad one waits until I'm out of sight to investigate food. If I even approach the fence with hay, she bolts 50 feet away. She has to stay in an internal paddock and I am anxious about integrating her with my herd in case her jumping behaviour spreads to the others, who are quite calm and ignore me most of the time. Farmers tell me there is only one cure for a jumping animal, but I'd love to get through to her and don't know where to start. If I start with a catch pen, out she flies. I have managed to work with a few difficult alpacas over the years but at least they stayed in the pen. Can you help?
