In early May, when the weather turned pleasant, we shorn Alpaca and Llama of the Ueno Zoo Children's Zoo. Some of you may be thinking, "You are already shearing their hair?　Some of you may be thinking, "Why are you already shearing them? Alpaca The animals Llama and live in high mountains and cannot tolerate Tokyo's heat. Alpaca They have been bathing in the water since late March.

Alpaca will be 3 years old this year and this is the first time for me to shear her hair.

We use a large hair clipper to clip his hair. The clippers are so big that they make a very loud noise when you turn them on. He was so startled by the noise that he was flailing about and was in no condition to mow.

So, I decided to make Alpaca lie down to shear its hair. However, we had to finish it in a short time because lying down is hard on the animal. So we clipped the animal's stomach and legs first while it was lying on its side, and then cut its head while it was standing up, using scissors to cut it steadily and deceptively.

After three hours of trimming, with breaks in between, the animals looked like completely different creatures before and after the trimming, but now they will be able to spend the summer in comfort.

On the other hand, Llama is used to mowing because he has been doing it every year, so he was able to do it very easily. It took him about 40 minutes to finish mowing his whole body. Even Llama, who was in a bad mood while shearing, looked "refreshed" when she was done.

We sheared 4 different animals this time: 5 kilograms from Alpaca, 1 kilogram from Llama, 2 kilograms from the midget horses, and 1 kilogram from the sheep. This wool can be washed, spun, and knitted to make sweaters and scarves. The hair from Alpaca is the finest of all.

But shearing at the Children's Zoo is not just about getting hair from the animals, it is a very important part of surviving the Tokyo heat.

Top photo: Before shearing of Alpaca
Top middle: After shearing
Bottom middle: Before shearing at Llama
Bottom: After shearing

Ueno Zoo Aoi Watanabe, Children's Zoo staff

(May 25, 2012)