Yesterday we lost our three alpacas at 4:30 am to a local mountain lion who was looking for breakfast. It was a sad day and we can only imagine how terrified they must have been when the lion came in their corral. The neighbor said all of the animals made such a commotion that the noise got them out of bed. They arrived on the scene just in time to see our black alpaca Max being dragged away down the canyon. The lion left the other two to come back and retrieve at another time. We learned that they eat the organs first, then return later to finish eating the carcass. In the wild a mountain lion would only manage to kill one animal as the rest of the herd would flee, but if the prey is in captivity, they will keep killing anything that moves due to instinct whether they can eat it in that moment or not. A breeder in the next town lost ten alpacas in one week. That being said, the silver lining is that the lovely woman who originally gave us our first alpacas, now is ready to find a home for three more. And they are females! This is great news as our original alpacas were males, and our intact male Max used to fight with the other two quite a bit. We recently had him castrated and it took his testosterone level down by about 50%, but he was a stud long enough to remember the desire be number one, so the squabbles still occurred, just on a lesser scale. Female alpacas don't have the need or desire to fight, so they will be much more peaceful together. Hooray! Now all we have to do is weld a steel hog wire gate on to the front of the barn where the girls can safely be enclosed at night. We thought maybe the horses would be enough of a deterrent for a lion, but apparently not. All of the other small animals have fully enclosed pens and the horses protect each other the best they can by sleeping in a herd. So onward and upward.......but not of course without saying many prayers for our beautiful boys whom we lost. They will be missed. (Note: photo is not of the actual lion responsible for the deaths, but one who lives nearby named P-45. Our kind neighbor who heard the attack and ran outside was too busy chasing him away and trying to save the alpacas to take a photo).