A little woolly bundle of spring joy called Florence Nightingale has arrived into the world at the Alpacaly Ever After social enterprise at Braithwaite.
Florence – or Flo as she is known – is the daughter of Thelma and Sven, part of the llama division of Alpacaly’s “Woolly Army”. Flo was named by Alpacaly director Ruby Nicholson in honour of all the NHS workers who are keeping everyone safe during the coronavirus epidemic.
Rachael Kearns, from Alpacaly, said: “May is a rather magical time of year for us here at Alpacaly Ever After, it signifies the start of baby season with our alpaca and llama girls. We are very pleased to announce that little Florence Nightingale has just arrived into the world.
“Flo is doing really well and Thelma is proving to be an amazing mum. Thelma is one of our re-homed llamas which came to Alpacaly two years ago with her son Rocksteady and she is now the “queen of the herd! Dad Sven is also an alpha male, so we think little Flo will be a force to be reckoned with!”
Alpacaly Ever After has more than 120 alpacas and llamas and most being rescued or re-homed from across the UK. Every other year the social enterprise breeds babies to keep its herd young, healthy and happy.
Female camelids (llamas and alpacas) are most content when they are pregnant. Their gestation period lasts for 242 to 345 days and they only breed once a year with one offspring – twins are extremely rare. Baby alpacas and llamas are called cria and they can walk, eat and out-run a human usually within 45 minutes of being born.
Rachael added: “Baby season is usually the most popular time with our visitors, but this year with Covid-19 lockdown in place we will be sharing as much as we can on our social media channels and hopefully helping to keep everyone’s spirits lifted with some baby alpaca and llama magic from our beautiful Lake District National Park!”