WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE?

It's time for another camelid story.  I have often wondered where all my boys sleep at night in the paddock.  Do they stay close to each other?  Do they actually roll over and go to sleep?  Do they stay in the middle or get near a fence?  Does anyone stay on watch?

Well a near full moon and cloudless sky provided some answers last night. 

To set the scene, our property is in the dark - no street lights, no other building lights - just pitch black.  So when the moon is full, it is so bright you can read your watch.  After donning boots (wouldn't want to tread on a snake), we walked down to the fence and saw all the boys cushed in the middle of the paddock in a natural valley.  Then we picked up 2 plastic chairs and proceeded to where they were.  The boys all got up and milled around - WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE at night?   After some sniffing of shoes and our hair and taking about 10 minutes to decide where to lie again, one by one the camelids took their positions.   Dust bowls are treasured by the boys and now we found they had a dual purpose - for dust baths during the day and comfy beds at night.  The llamas were first and it wasn't long before big Udo had his head on the ground - how relaxed is that?  The alpacas followed and it was interesting as each took their position using their rocking motion and they all lay in different directions almost as though to guard in case an intruder appeared.  The eternal friends TopDeck and Scrumpy didn't disappoint and stayed quite close to each other.  Camilo, always the last to do everything, was last again. We sat in our chairs and watched the flashing lights of planes  flying across the southern sky into Perth in the distance and the 11 boys lay silently around us listening to the occasional dog bark or horse neigh.

The temperature was perfect. There was a wafting breeze, just the noises of the night and wide open skies.  After about 30 minutes we left the chairs in the middle of the paddock and crept slowly back to the house.