Llama starts new life in Polish mountains after fleeing theme park

A search is underway in the Polish mountains for a llama that escaped from a nearby Wild West theme park and has refused to return to captivity.

Its owners say that catching the fugitive is proving difficult after it apparently remembered its species’ genetic predisposition for living high in the mountains. But they hope colder temperatures could force it to return.

The llama has been spotted by a hikers in the Giant (Karkonosze) Mountains in southwestern Poland, and its owners have asked them not to feed it junk food.

A male and a female llama living at the Western City ranch near Karpacz, a popular resort close to Poland’s border with the Czech Republic, made their bid for freedom three months ago, reports RMF24. The female has since been caught, leaving her partner to roam on his own.

The pair had only arrived at the park in early July. After disappearing, they were initially reported stolen, but it later turned out that they had broken out and escaped without help, notes Wirtualna Polska.

The remaining runaway has now climbed high into the mountains, to around 1,200-1,300 metres above sea level, and Jerzy Pokój, the owner of the ranch, says that catching him is not proving easy. His staff, along with employees of the Karkonosze National Park, will try again to tempt him down today.

A domesticated cow escaped from her farm and spent the winter with a herd of wild bison in Poland's Białowieża Forest.

She 'chose freedom', says a local scientist https://t.co/KXu90vZC7S

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 24, 2018

“He’s gone back into the high mountains as if he remembers that his genes are from the great mountains, from the Andes,” Pokój said, quoted by RMF24. “And he’s managing OK there, but we’re not managing to get him back down.”

Pokój explained that previous attempts to catch the escapee, including a 500 zloty (€110) reward, had been to no avail. The runaway llama will accept food but not allow itself to be touched or harnessed.

“We even have a person with a tranquilliser gun. But the trail is very narrow there. If we tranquillise him high in the mountains, there is no way of transporting him down,” Pokój told RMF 24.

A cow escaped from a transport to the slaughterhouse, smashed through a metal fence, broke the arm of an employee who tried to catch her, then swam to an island in the middle of a lake, where she remains 3 weeks later, attacking anyone who approaches https://t.co/Z2OTJJrxGg

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 16, 2018

The llama’s owner hope that, even if today’s operation is unsuccessful, he might soon return home, either because llamas live in groups and he decides the solitary life is not for him, or when colder temperatures arrive.

“We hope that if we don’t manage to catch him today, then when the frost comes he will have to come down lower where there is water – either on the Polish or the Czech side,” Pokój told TVP.

Marian Bochynek, a tour guide in the area who encountered and photographed the llama, said that he had fed it two apples. He confirmed that the fugitive had not allowed itself to be stroked, but did not spit.

If other hikers come across it, Pokój says that they should be careful. They can feed it carrots or apples, but not snacks such as crisps or chocolate bars.