A llama in New Hampshire earned the titles of both hero and fugitive on Wednesday when it broke out of its enclosure to save a gaggle of ducks, according to a police report.
This is the second time Noir has jumped the electric fence around his paddock, but Jackson Police say that it was for a noble cause.
“Noir has a flock of ducks that he watches over, and a bear has taken a taste for duck eggs and duck. The bear came calling, and Noir jumped over the fence and chased after it,” Jackson Police Chief Chris Perley told the Conway Daily Sun.
After escaping, the llama decided the grass was greener on the other side and took off down the road.
It found some especially green grass at the Eagle Mountain Golf Course, about three miles from his house, or two miles as the crow flies.
He surprised golfers by showing up on the sixth fairway, and was heading to a big patch of bushes, when Chief Perley and Jackson Patrol Officer Ryan McDonald showed up.
“Ryan sprang into action, and ran in and grabbed as much llama as he could,” Perley told the Daily Sun.
Half the battle was to get the llama, the other half was to get it home, he said.
Perley fashioned a makeshift harness for the llama out of a rope and was eventually able to corral the animal onto the road.
Perley and the llama’s owner, Russ Miller, drove Miller’s pickup truck slowly down the road with Perley holding Noir’s rope as he walked behind the truck.
“After going a little way, we stopped,” Perley told the Daily Sun. “I don’t know how you tell if a llama is tired, but he looked it.”
Llamas are as stubborn as donkeys, he said, so instead of trying to force the animal down the street, Wilson came back with a flatbed trailer.
Perley drove the truck while Wilson kept Noir calm in the trailer, and eventually they got the tired llama safely back to his paddock.
After being called out last June and again on Monday, Perley said he’s getting some experience with llama wrangling, but he hopes not to have to do it again.
He reported that Wilson is planning to raise the electric fence on Noir’s enclosure, and that he had connected Wilson with state biologists who can help him with his bear problem.
As for Noir, it appears he hasn’t borne a grudge against Perley for locking him up twice.
“I don’t have a lot of widespread llama experience, but Noir, with those big brown eyes, sure seems fond of me,” he told the Daily Sun “I think we have a real connection.”
From NTD.tv
