Saugus — The Saugus Public Library got a special visit from the Harvard Alpaca Ranch’s alpacas, Sir Erik and Ivan, on Wednesday morning.
Co-owner of the ranch, Amy Varrell, handled Ivan, while Anna Massaro handled Sir Erik.
Varrell taught the kids all about alpacas, starting off with pointing out their haircuts, which they only get once a year, near the summer, to stay cool in the New England heat.
“Can you guys guess how many alpacas we have on our farm?” Varrell asked the kids.
The kids excitedly answered, guessing every number they could think of. They were shocked by Varrell’s answer, which was 37.
“We have 26 girls and 11 boys,” she said. “And that’s because Ivan here has six daughters and a granddaughter on our farm. He only makes girl babies!”
Varrell was met with “awes” when she told the audience about Ivan’s newest baby, who is eight days old.
“Her name is Bianca Blossom, and we call her Bibi. She’s all white, and she has blue eyes. So Bianca has something special about her, too, which is very rare in alpacas… and it’s the first time that it’s happened with us. Alpacas that are white with blue eyes, they can’t hear, they’re deaf,” Varrell explained. “So Bianca is going to learn to live on our farm and be an alpaca even though she can’t hear.”
Varrell joked that Bianca was the whitest thing she’s ever seen in her life “until she rolls in the mud.”
She asked the kids if they liked to roll in the mud and was immediately met with a chorus of “no’s.”
When asked why they roll in the mud, Varrell explained that it helps them itch their backs.
She then asked the kids if they think alpacas are slow or fast. The vote was split right down the middle, with half the kids raising their hands for slow and the other half for fast.
“Believe it or not, they are fast! They don’t look like it, but when I’m trying to catch an alpaca, they run really fast,” she said.
Varrell was asked when she bought her first alpaca, and she answered, saying nine years ago.
“We’ve had the farm for nine years. We started with eight alpacas, four boys and four girls,” she said.
One kid then shouted out that the alpacas’ necks looked like bananas, which got a laugh from the adults in the room.
Varrell then explained how alpacas are in the camel family and also related to llamas.
“The difference between llamas and alpacas is that llamas are double the size of an alpaca,” she said. “An alpaca weighs about 150 pounds. Llamas are going to weigh closer to 400.”
Varrell then instructed the kids to line up in two separate lines, one to pet Sir Erik and one to pet Ivan. She then told them to be extra careful and only approach from the front as they scare easily from the back.
The kids immediately packed into lines, ready to greet their new furry friends, and parents had phones at the ready to take their pictures.
