Alpaca Sleeping Habits

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Jill Bergmen and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the sleeping habits of Alpacas. It's hard to know, really, about when they're sleeping and when they're not sleeping. I can come into the barn in the middle of the night, and of course they're all laying down -- and the term we use for laying down is "kushed"; "they're all kushed" -- but their eyes might be open or their eyes might be halfway open. And you're not so sure if they're awake or they're asleep. But during the morning hours, like right now, they're very, very active. They know they're going to be fed their supplements. They know that they're going to go out and be in the sunshine and have a little romp. But then, what is so interesting is every single afternoon, no matter where they are, they'll come back to the barn, lumber back to the barn, and they'll all kush. And they're all laying there, taking their afternoon nap. And that goes on for, gosh, I'd say a couple hours where they're just laying in the afternoon in the barn. But as far as really catching them asleep, sometimes it's hard to do. Sometimes it's hard to tell. Maybe they're very light sleepers. This could very well be possible, because they are prey animals. That they don't really go into a deep sleep, because they always have to be aware of what's going on around them. If there's any danger, if there's any animal or any kind of danger, they have to be aware of it. They'll always hear it. Because if you would come into the barn thinking they're all sleeping, and you made a noise, they would all be up in just a flash to tell you they're aware of your presence."