Intoducing Augusto!

I took the dogs outside at 7:30 this morning and looked down towards the barn to put my eyeballs on Aurora who is a bit overdue to give birth. I saw her strolling outside the barn door looking normal, and all the girls were in and around the barn as well. They haven't come out to graze yet so I went ahead and poured me a cup of coffee and turned on the TV. I'm sitting in the kitchen drinking my coffee and it's now 8 am and Tara peeks out the window and says, "Do you know you have a baby outside?" I said, "No way!" And she said, "What's that cria next to Santo? It's not Rosetta 'cause she's over there!" I looked outside and sure enough there's Santo laying right next to the cria, just the two of them and nobody else. I said "oops, I'd better get out there."

So, I went to check on the little one and pulled off some of the dried membrane still attached to his fleece. Aurora saw me and came over to voice her displeasure that I was messing with her baby. At this point I checked the cria out, saw it was a male, looked strong and healthy, then he went to nurse with mom so I left the two alone.

I went to the barn to arrange the stalls and gates so Aurora and cria can have alone time to bond for a few days. They have their own separate pasture and barn stalls where they can see the other alpacas, I just don't want the animals all together just yet.

Tara came down to the barn and said that's Augusto! Which is Italian in origin which means magnificent, majestic. He's a bit on the small side weighing in at 13 pounds although the gestation period was 355 days. We'll keep an eye on him although right now everything looks normal. He's nursing, active and alert.

My guess is Aurora had the cria around 6:30 this morning in the barn. He followed everyone out around 7:45, walked about 300 feet and kushed near the rest of the herd. Santo laid down beside him to protect him.

Here's a couple of pictures from this morning: