‘One tough little mama.’ Mother alpaca chases off cougar stalking baby, video shows

A mountain lion stalks a herd of alpacas at a ranch in Cook, Washington - then bites into the neck of a baby alpaca and drags it away, a night-time security video shows.

That’s when Amorette, the baby’s mother, charges into action, reported KING. 5 She chases the big cat back and forth across the pen until it drops her baby and flees, the video shows.

“We’d never seen anything like it,” said Angela Rogers, co-owner of Cedar Creek Alpacas, according to the station. “She’s one tough little mama.”

The week-old alpaca suffered a serious neck injury in the Sept. 16 attack, Rogers wrote on a GoFundMe page to raise money for his treatment. The campaign had raised $1,080 of a $5,000 goal by midday Tuesday.

“We are calling him Lucky,” Rogers wrote on the GoFundMe drive. “He is the luckiest alpaca to survive such trauma.”

Rogers wrote the ranch also plans to use the money to add fencing and acquire guard dogs to protect the herd, which it has had for nine years, from future attacks.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife brought in dogs to search for the mountain lion after the attack, but could not find it, according to KPTV.

Rogers told the station she heard the commotion in the alpaca pen on the night of Sept. 16 and dashed outside to discover the injured alpaca.

“We’re amazed that little boy survived,” Rogers said, according to KATU. “I mean, he was only a week old, maybe 15, 16 pounds, and, you know, he’s a survivor, and his mom’s one tough little alpaca, too.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2018 at 12:50 PM with the headline "‘One tough little mama.’ Mother alpaca chases off cougar stalking baby, video shows."