Owner of Montana yak ranch adds a Bactrian camel to the mix
KALISPELL, Mont. — Carlos lets out a long, low-pitched protest moan — sounding suspiciously like Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies — as Jim Watson says “sook sook” and gently pulls the enormous camel’s head and halter downward.
Carlos’ front legs collapse onto his calloused knees, followed by his accordion-like hind legs, with his salad-plate-sized, double-toed feet folded underneath him until he’s comfortably kneeling. Watson scratches Carlos’ mullet-styled mane behind his ears, whispers sweet nothings into the one-ton ungulate’s ear, then turns to his visitors.
“I really like him,” Watson says while sporting an ear-to-ear grin.
Theirs is a language of love that’s not always spoken in English but translates well.
“He’s very dramatic and emotional, and he vocalizes a lot,” Watson told the Missoulian. “It can sound like you’re killing him, but if you’re petting him and he really likes it, he kind of purrs and talks back to me.”
Their love affair goes back a few years, when Watson delivered a yak to a ranch in Ridgway, Colorado. Carlos was three years old, and the two hit it off immediately.
“He put his big head over my shoulder and we got to be friends. We kind of bonded,” Watson said.
He told Carlos’ owners that he’d always have space for the camel, which has a life expectancy of 40 to 50 years. Two years later, Carlos arrived at the Spring Brook Ranch, where Watson and his wife, Carol Bibler, raise yaks. Bibler wasn’t particularly pleased, nor were their mules and horses.
“The horses and mules were terrified of him,” Watson said. “It took days for them to get acclimated.”