FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. — There has been a mystery llama roaming around southeast Franklin County for months — and no one quite knows why.
Locals have their theories, but it’s not clear where the unlikely animal — which was spotted eating grass along the road or jumping into animal enclosures — came from.
Dean Woodcock first spotted the llama on a property he was visiting near Project Road in the Luebbering area Jan. 12.
“We looked out and there was a full-grown llama in the front yard,” Woodcock said. “A lot of things have wandered into that yard, but I’ll say this was a first.”
Woodcock called around to neighbors. Several reported llama sightings of their own.
When the llama didn’t budge for hours, Woodcock called the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office for help. He wasn’t the first llama-spotter.
“We’d been getting calls about this llama since Jan. 5,” said sheriff’s office records clerk Melissa Dahms. “So we thought we really need to do something about this.”
Deputies took a photo of the animal, and Dahms posted a message on the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page Jan. 13.
“Do you have a farm in the area of Project Rd or Friend Road? Do you own Llamas? Do you have them all? Go count, we’ll wait … Missing one? We know where it is,” the post said.
The post was shared more than 430 times, but the owner of the llama remains somewhat of a mystery, according to Dahms.
There were some leads: One local donkey owner told the sheriff’s office that the llama started showing up on his property around May — and began herding his donkey.
Other locals reported that a family that owned llamas packed up and moved out of the area just after the major floods last May, possibly leaving one animal behind, Dahms said.
But there the case ran cold: no owner ever called to claim the missing animal.
Luring Llamas
Escaped llamas are more common than most people think, said Julie Wier, who lives in Wildwood and has raised and bred llamas since 1983.
Wier worked with Southeast Llama Rescue for 15 years, being called to just this type of escaped llama situation.
“Llamas get out. It’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when,” said Wier. “I know of more than one story of llamas that have spent months and months on the loose.”
Wier said llamas are a sturdy animal native to the Andes Mountains and can survive on their own eating many different kinds of grass and leaves with little water.
And once they’re on the loose, they can be wiley and hard to wrangle. Some llamas can jump more than 3.5 feet and run up to 35 miles per hour.
“You can’t catch a llama if it doesn’t want to be caught,” said Wier.
Wier identified the evasive Franklin County llama as a Classic North American Llama, and likely a male based on size.
“That llama needs a haircut,” Wier said looking at a photo of the offending animal. “It’s probably been years since it’s been sheared.”
Wier said when she worked with the rescue they would capture escaped llamas by bringing a female llama to lure a male, or tempt it with a bucket of grain.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office contacted Longmeadow Rescue Ranch for advice on what to do with the llama on their hands.
The shelter put out a call to local llama owners, and one llama keeper came forward and agreed to take the animal in.
In the end, the llama walked onto a trailer, seeming to accept the conclusion to its improbable months of freedom.
