The Cria Gang

I remember last year that our cria hung out together and liked to run and play. But Lily was enough older and bigger that she didn't always fit in with the rest of them. Kateri tends to be a very protective mother and often won't let her cria participate, so Pocahontas' activities were halted by that. That left Cavalier all on his own to run around. I know he loved it when Ashton Stones Alpacas had some of their weanlings here for weaning. Cav and D'ar were best of friends racing around together. This year, we seem to have a very cohesive cria group.

I marvel at their different personalities, and how they function as a group. I've watched while Rose gathers all the cria up. She'll walk over to them one by one and nudge at them, until they join in. She convinces Twilight and Copper quite easily to join in. Sometimes it's Twilight nudging Copper to join in. Other times I've seen Copper chase the girls to get them to join in. Last week our visiting cria joined in quite quickly too. I was shocked when the evening on the day he was born, Rose came and tried to get Chaz to join in. Kateri would not hear of it and stopped that immediately. But I have a feeling Kateri will only keep a short leash on him for so long. In no time he will be running with the gang.

They are a fun gang: they run, they race up and down our hill, and they play a sort of tag game (I see them taking turns being the leader of the pack running, then one will tag the leader's back and soon a new leader starts).

Here is the gang (Copper, Twilight, Rose, and Chaz next to his mother):



Rose is the oldest, and the friendly one who greets everyone and wants everyone to join in:



Copper is more stand-off-ish, but he is a fast runner, often taking the lead, and loves to chase the girls, or neck wrestle:



Twilight is the little one of the group, being born at 17 pounds, she's our smallest cria so far this year. But she holds her own, and is great buddies with Rose and Copper. Twilight is also the biggest flirt, and she has a huge crush on Chaz. She will saunter over to him and give him kisses. I've never seen such a flirt of an alpaca!



Chaz is the youngest of the group, but almost as tall as all the others. So far his mom won't let him join the gang, but it's only a matter of time :)



We still have one more cria due this year. Victoria is due with her cria any day now. She usually goes to around day 350, so I expect that cria pretty close to her due date. I'm going to be gone from July 21-23. I'm predicting she'll have that cria while I'm gone.