Oct. 7 - British farmers have begun using llamas to protect flocks of sheep from predators. Susan Booth, who owns a farm in Sussex, bought a 4-year-old male named Spot to guard her flock at end of last year.

employment of guard llamas benefits predators as well as prey animals since unlike shooting, poisoning and other methods of predator control, llamas rarely kill.

"In many ways Spot is environmentally perfect," said Booth. "He's a natural form of protection that's unlikely to harm predators. He just scares them off."

Llamas cost a significant amount of money, but provide long-term savings because animals generally are healthy, robust creatures. In addition, they do not need to be trained because their guarding behavior is instinctive, and they eat same food and require same vaccinations as sheep.

Farmers in United States, Australia and other countries have been using llamas to protect not only sheep, but ducks, geese, goats, deer and even cows for years. practice is expected to become more commonplace in England as awareness of benefits of guard llamas increases.

From Discovery Channel (adapted)