• last year
A newborn alpaca was up and about just an hour after being born.

The unnamed cria was born to first-time mum Storm at 12.20pm on July 12 - and was standing up by 1.20pm.

The young male, who is silver in colour, was born at Almond Valley, Livingston, West Lothian, and is in a field with six others.

More babies are expected this year, and Storm was born there two-and-a-half years ago.

The cria is expected to be running round the paddock by the end of the week.

Farm manager Craig Holmes, 35, said: "We normally leave it a few days to announce it but the baby was up on his feet and seemed strong.

"He is Storm's first baby, she was also born here.

"It is quite a complicated process, they are normally pregnant for 11 months.

"You can scan them but it is a lot harder."

Instead a process called 'spit off' is used.

After having a romp in the grass, the male and female alpacas are then reintroduced a few weeks later.

If the female spits at the male it indicates she is pregnant, rather than lying down for another mating session.

Craig added: "It is a lot harder to identify through a scanner, it might not pick it up so we use 'spit off' instead.

"They start of small and scrawny but grow quickly.

"Within a week it will be running round the paddock.

"Alpacas are not very intelligent but they are quite pretty.

"We will run a competition to name him.

"He's in a field with the rest of the herd.

"We are expecting more alpaca babies this year.

"We have a barn in case the weather is bad."

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