Alpaca gets given mirror for company after friends die

He's now feeling less lonely

The 18-year-old-alpaca, Giovanni, lives at Screech Owl Sanctuary & Animal Park in Saint Columb.

He has now been given mirrors to help him feel less lonely.

The animal was “in need of a special treat” and “a sense that there's somebody else around”, the operations director at the park, Gary Zammit said.

According to the park, this was a short-term solution, and they appealed for people to donate mirrors.

“We just wanted to get some mirrors up as a temporary situation just to help him feel a little bit less isolated”, Zammit added.

The park’s operations director said that normally three alpacas were in a pen at one time but two had died shortly after one another.

He said that two female alpacas would be donated to the sanctuary by a regular visitor, in order to keep Giovanni company.

“We've just got to do some planning because obviously you can't just take animals from anywhere and add them to a collection of this size”, he said.

After the appeals for mirrors on social media, Zammit said he now had “plenty”, and that “he seems quite happy seeing his reflection.”

“He's been pretty good but it's even better when he's got that there so he can see another alpaca as far as he, hopefully, thinks in the paddock with him.”