Have you ever come across a situation that’s left you scratching your head and thinking, “How on earth?”
The world seems like a fairly safe place until you find yourself in danger. Animals – and humans, for that matter – are prone to finding themselves in dangerous situations that are baffling to onlookers.
Take this story, featuring a baby alpaca that somehow managed to get her entire body stuck in a badger hole.
In a video that defies all logic, a farmer in Menomonie, Wisconsin can be seen carefully digging around a small hole, out of which pokes the baby alpaca’s head.
Baby alpacas have a lot more body – and a lot more leg – than the average fully-grown badger, so it’s hardly surprising that the alpaca had become wedged in the right space underground.
Apparently getting in was a lot easier than getting out.
Farmer John Govin told ABC News that he had randomly spotted the alpaca’s head above the ground. He recalled:
“I found her just several inches underground. Her little head was just looking up and out of the hole. It looks like she fell into what appeared to be a badger hole.”
The alpaca is one of the youngest members of a small herd on Govin’s farm. The little cutie was only one week old when she went missing.
According to John, she simply didn’t show up with her mom for grain that night.
Unfortunately, despite a farmer’s best efforts, it’s common for young animals to be targeted by predators like foxes, wolves, and even birds of prey.
So when John discovered that his alpaca was, in fact, just down a hole, he was pleasantly surprised.
At first, John tried to pull out the baby with his hands, but it soon became apparent that gravity had worked in her favor when she’d fallen down the hole… but not so much now.
The alpaca’s leg was wedged – trapping her whole body underground.
John had to carefully use a shovel to free her, while his wife recorded a video that later went viral when it was shared to Facebook.
There’s something addictive about animal rescue videos with happy endings, and this one is no exception.
Once John finally gets the alpaca back onto solid ground, she sits there for a second, getting to grips with her newfound freedom.
But then – she’ up, on wobbly legs, and heads straight to her number one: her mamma.
It must have been pretty scary to see your week-old baby half-disappear down a hole, especially when you can’t actually communicate with anyone what’s happened.
So, unsurprisingly, when the baby alpaca stumbles over to her mom, mom gives her a quick air kiss – but then looks away like she never cared in the first place.
As soon as mom turns around and walks off, her little one follows – right where she should be.
According to John, the baby is “doing just fine now. He added:
“We’re thinking about naming her Dusty. Alpacas love to take dust baths, and we think she was probably rolling in the dust when she slid into the hole by accident.”
John says that the incident was “certainly the strangest thing I’d ever seen”, and we’re right there with him. It’s not every day you come across an alpaca’s head sticking out of a hole in the ground.
You can check out the adorable rescue in the video below!
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