A newborn alpaca was up and about just an hour after being born.<br /><br />The unnamed cria was born to first-time mum Storm at 12.20pm on July 12 - and was standing up by 1.20pm.<br /><br />The young male, who is silver in colour, was born at Almond Valley, Livingston, West Lothian, and is in a field with six others.<br /><br />More babies are expected this year, and Storm was born there two-and-a-half years ago.<br /><br />The cria is expected to be running round the paddock by the end of the week.<br /><br />Farm manager Craig Holmes, 35, said: "We normally leave it a few days to announce it but the baby was up on his feet and seemed strong.<br /><br />"He is Storm's first baby, she was also born here.<br /><br />"It is quite a complicated process, they are normally pregnant for 11 months.<br /><br />"You can scan them but it is a lot harder."<br /><br />Instead a process called 'spit off' is used.<br /><br />After having a romp in the grass, the male and female alpacas are then reintroduced a few weeks later.<br /><br />If the female spits at the male it indicates she is pregnant, rather than lying down for another mating session.<br /><br />Craig added: "It is a lot harder to identify through a scanner, it might not pick it up so we use 'spit off' instead.<br /><br />"They start of small and scrawny but grow quickly.<br /><br />"Within a week it will be running round the paddock.<br /><br />"Alpacas are not very intelligent but they are quite pretty.<br /><br />"We will run a competition to name him.<br /><br />"He's in a field with the rest of the herd.<br /><br />"We are expecting more alpaca babies this year.<br /><br />"We have a barn in case the weather is bad."
