Tuesday 22 May 2012

Heritable traits in alpacas

This afternoon has been hot and now the alpacas who haven't been sheared wish they had!  Cassie has hugged the side of the field shelter all day delicately picking at blades of grass and leaping up every now and again for a quick dash o the water.
Yossarian has learnt how to turn the foot water over and has been steadily doing this all day meaning I have been charging around restocking water.  Sam and Carl had an early start as they were shearing in Essex so I have had rather too much time on my own.  I have put this time to good use though as I have finally developed a pattern for a beret which I have been struggling with.  I have been also thinking about heritable traits in alpacas - not your normal heritability of fleece characteristics or fleece with but the rather more thorny issue of the heritability of snoring,  pipe tongue and wobbly lips.  Carolyn's lips wobble and flap when she runs and I noticed today that so do her daughter Emily's.  Flamenco rolls her tongue into a pipe - not only when drinking , she also lies there and does it for fun - so does her daughter String.  And Crispie is the biggest and most noisy snorer which I heard today she has passed on with a vengeance to her son Alf!

Now we have an issue to investigate tonight, following another shearing booking, namely - How do you shear an Angora goat?!!

3 comments:

  1. I love to see how strange things like snoring run in families. Rolling in front of the food trough and having to stop for a wee on the way for breakfast runs in families here!

    I want some Angora goats so when you find out let me know!!

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  2. We too have a mother and her two daughters who all snore when flat out in the sunshine!

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  3. Heritable traits are interesting, especially the sort you describe! We have 2 families and I could add to your list!

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