Last night, at dusk, the llamas all came up to the house. We all had a bit of a sleepless night as everyone was so unsettled. There was no full moon but a sense of something about to happen.

In the morning they all hung around and Lovage was on watch duty.

We had thought that Nova was pregnant and sure enough she started to give birth.

Nova was clearly uncomfortable and moving around a lot with Naomi, her mum, by her side. It was so hard to watch and see her laboring and not interfere. The rest of the herd had gone to graze on the other side of the hill through the bush. Eventually it arrived and dropped on the ground. It was weak and floppy and didn’t get up. At this stage we decided to leave them to it and hope for the best. We went to check a little later. The herd were all grazing together. Nova was munching away but no sign of her cria.

We found the placenta on the track and took it home to compost later.

We walked back to where Nova had given birth to look for the cria not knowing if it would be dead or alive. We found her in the bush very near where she was born. Weak but breathing. Nova and Naomi must have followed the others and left her behind.

We carried her along the track until we found the herd again and put her down under a big totara tree. They all came rushing over to greet and sniff and lick.

When we headed back over to check up later it was starting to drizzle and Naomi, Nova and little one were right over the far side of the property. She was trying to suckle Naomi instead of her mum and looked incredibly weak and wobbly. We don’t know if she will survive or not.