Llamas and Coyotes and Dogs

During the past few weeks, we have been reminded of the on-going problem of coyotes in our area. A neighbor has had many of his chickens killed by coyotes during the daylight hours. He was successful in killing several of the coyotes. Nightly, we hear coyote calls and see groups of them walking through our back pastures during the morning hours. Because of this, we use llamas as livestock guardians in all our paddocks with a couple of Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs in another. Llamas have a natural dislike of canines (domestic and wild dogs, coyotes, and foxes). After the llama bonds with its herd of livestock, it takes over as a protector and leader. Llamas become aggressive only if a predator advances toward their new family group. Llamas show aggression by chasing, biting, and kicking. Guardian llamas can stomp to death a canine that will not retreat. To read more about llamas as guardians, see our web site.