Roger the guard llama.

Coyotes were killing the lambs on the Lortons' Iowa farm. The Lortons had fenced in the pasture. They brought the sheep into the barn every night. They tried a series of sheep dogs. And they shot the coyotes they saw. Still, the sneaky coyotes kept finding a way to get a lamb for their dinner. Then Mr. Lorton read about using llamas as guard animals.

Dr. William Franklin at Iowa State University had been studying the use of llamas as guards since the 1980s. He interviewed 145 sheep ranchers who had put guard llamas into their flocks. Before they bought llamas, these ranchers had tried to discourage predators in many ways, but most of them had not used a guard animal, such as a sheep dog, donkey, or llama. If any of these animals is kept with. the flock and not treated as a pet, it can become a defender of its 'family" of sheep.

These 145 ranchers had lost one in ten of their sheep each year to predators, mostly coyotes. After Bringing in llamas, those same ranchers lost only one sheep in a hundred yearly.

The Lortons decided to give a llama a try. They retired their sheep dog and brought in a young male llama to replace him. They named the llama Roger.

Roger quickly became friends with the sheep. He bonded with the flock and considered them his family. The sheep seemed to like him, too. After all, he looked something like a big, long-necked sheep himself.

In just a few days Roger was leader of the flock and began taking care of the Lortons' sixty sheep. (On average, each guard llama protects 250 to 300 sheep.) Roger immediately showed a natural herding instinct, leading the sheep out to pasture each morning and bringing them back in the evening.

He needed little training. Mrs. Lorton said, "Roger is very intelligent. He is gentle with the lambs and ewes, and he's very protective."

Male llamas fit naturally into a herd. They lived together in herds thousands of years ago, even before they were domesticated in South America. They had to defend themselves and their young from coyotes, foxes, and other members of the dog family.

All the Lortons' farm animals got along with Roger--the cows and the goats, the ducks and the chickens. But since llamas are used to thinking of animals like coyotes and dogs as threats, it took Roger a few weeks to accept the family dog.

Each llama has its own personality, and Roger's special traits quickly won the hearts of the Lorton family. "Roger has a wonderful nature with most people," Mrs. Lorton said. "But if he doesn't like you, he won't come around you at all. If he really doesn't like you, he'll leave and take all of the sheep with him."

Roger protects the sheep and lambs in two ways. First, he keeps the sheep together. A hungry coyote will try to scatter the flock and then pick off a weak or small animal that has become separated from the rest. But when a coyote threatens the Lortons' sheep, they all run to Roger, depending on him to defend them.

And he does, with his second defense: confronting the coyote. Llamas are very curious and will run at top speed to investigate anything that looks interesting. When a coyote sees a three-hundred-pound llama pounding toward it, the coyote usually will not wait around to see what the llama wants.

And once a llama realizes that a coyote is threatening the flock, the llama will stand between the coyote and the sheep-to defend them. Often, the llama will charge toward the coyote with its head down. As it runs, it will sometimes call out an alarm to the flock in a high-pitched warble. Since Roger came to the Lortons' farm, coyotes haven't gotten any sheep.

Llamas may seem to be perfect guard animals, but some of them can also cause problems. For example, a llama may become so protective of the flock that it won't let the farmer work with the sheep. The farmer may need to build a "catch pen"--a place to keep the llama for short periods.

What's it like to have a llama in your family? "Roger eats the same food as the sheep but is polite and always lets them go first," Mrs. Lorton said. "When he lies down, the lambs climb all over him, and some even sleep on his soft back. He is a very special member of our family."

RELATED ARTICLE: Llama manners.

You can see llamas in zoos and at fairs. There may be farms or ranches near you that use guard llamas.

Dale Graham, a llama breeder and trainer, explained how to greet a llama. "It is bad manners to try to touch their faces with your hands," she said. "The right way to meet a llama for the first time is to put your hands behind your back and lean toward the llama. Most llamas will be happy to `meet' you by touching their nose to yours."