Dec. 17, 2018

Nature Calls It!

Over the last couple of days we have been experiencing some terrible weather. Its not that we're not used to it because the recent storm was the third named one since November - Storm Deirdre. It included gusts of wind of up to 130km/h, torrential rain and even hail showers. 

A favourite past-time of us people from Ireland and the British Isles is to talk about the weather and we like to complain about how bad the forecasters are at predicting our weather. But we don't seem to take into account that most of our weather can be localised events and that the rainfall 15 miles down the road could be completely different to what we experience. We even depend on apps to help us out, but then our battery and we are left with nothing.

But that's not the case with the animal world - which does not have access to any of out technologies - but they seem to know when bad weather is on the way. Watching our alpacas, we see them moving before a torrential rain shower or high wind. They always seem to know the direction the wind is going to come from; they find shelter. 

During Storm Ophelia I observed our alpacas lying in the middle of their paddock during the height of that storm. I decided to go out to see if they were alright and as I approached them I saw that they were sitting with the heads forward a little just beside a small rise in the ground. I went up to them and bent down close to them to find that the wind was skirting over them completely. Meanwhile as I stood up again, I was nearly blown off balance by the 140km/h gusts.

How did they find that spot? How did they know there even was such a spot in their paddock? There was a shelter in the field but they decided to use what had been provided by nature itself to combat what Mother Nature was throwing out.

But then I realised that Nature knows best. My experience of this is with alpacas and how they can accurately predict what weather is on the way and how they can deal with it without needing to construct a barrier to keep me safe and sound.

Nature Calls it and alpacas will provide you with advance notice of the on=coming weatherr. These are fabulous animnals and there are many reasons why they should be studied and loved.