Escaped Wenona llamas settle in, welcome baby llama

Chris Scheuer’s llamas escaped their pen in Wenona for an adventure last November that received local media attention, but now they’re in for an entirely new kind of adventure.

As it turns out, one of the llamas, Morgan, was pregnant and recently welcomed a baby named Ryder.

“This was not expected at all,” Scheuer said. “We adopted the animals back in August of last year and the guy said he wouldn’t be surprised if Morgan is expecting, and all of a sudden, we went out one day and we found a baby llama.”

Scheuer said the llamas have become much more friendly since breaking out of their pen last fall and running free between Lostant and Wenona, although they’re protective of Ryder.

“They’re coming around to us,” Scheuer said. “They’ll walk up closer to you and, you know, they’re protective of their baby but they’re super cute and super fun.”

Scheuer said she also has a couple of donkeys now, so it’s like they have a friendly farm for the animals. She said her family has had a lot of interest from people just driving by wanting to see the now-locally famous llamas.

Ryder was named for Morgan Ryder, a family friend of Scheuer’s that died in a car crash in 2020. The names of the trio of llamas that escaped are Sailor Jerry, Captain Morgan and Jack Daniels.

Fun fact

A baby llama is called a cria. A cria is a juvenile llama, alpaca, vicuna or guanaco.