When Mark and Amy Livesay’s beloved llama, Smokey, went missing on a backcountry outing, they extended their camping trip, hoping the 6-year-old would return. But with the llama still missing, the Livesays eventually had to return home — and they’re now asking for help from area hunters.

Smokey went missing on the night of Sunday, Sept. 2, during an elk hunt in the Castle Creek drainage in the South Fork area outside of Cody. A bear came into camp and spooked Smokey in the early morning hours, Missoula resident Mark Livesay said in a GoFundMe post.

Smokey was secured, but the animal ran to the end of his tie-out, snapped his heavy-duty, half-inch lead rope, and disappeared into the dark after tearing through the campsite at about 2 a.m.

“In 10 years of packing, we’ve never had a llama that frightened,” Mark Livesay wrote. “We searched through the night and stayed at that camp for three more days, but he didn’t come back.”

He said there was evidence of a small bear having been within 10 yards of Smokey, who was brought in with nine other llamas for the trip. The hunting party suspects it was a black bear based on the tracks and scat left at the camp.

“I think that it spooked him so bad that he jumped up and ran and just snapped that lead rope,” Livesay said in a video made the day after the incident.

He has second thoughts on the age of his lead rope, which was a few years old.

“It breaks my heart,” Livesay said. “My wife is heartbroken. It’s one of our favorite llamas.”

The couple had raised Smokey from birth.

Since his disappearance, Smokey has been spotted twice. Hunters recently spotted him hanging out with or near a herd of elk above 11,000 feet near Eleanor Creek, reporting the animal in good condition. 

“We believe he’s alive, just lost and scared,” Livesay said. “Winter is coming, and this is serious wolf and grizzly country. Every day counts, which is why we are asking for help now while there is still a real chance to locate and catch him safely.”

However, saving the llama may be difficult due to his shy nature. If you chase him, he will run; Livesay said shaking a feed bucket until Smokey approaches for a snack is the best way to lure him in.

The Livesays are requesting donations to help pay for a reward for help that leads to his safe capture, flyovers to find Smokey from the air and for pack-in trips to reach, catch and lead him out.

Smokey is likely the only loose llama in the area, but he’s black with silvery-gray fleece tips, black legs and a black head with a white face blaze and muzzle.

“It’s likely wearing an orange halter, possibly with a broken piece of blue lead rope,” Livesay advises.

Llamas Unlimited owner Levi Kunneke said she has no doubt the llama could survive in the mountains, but the rope and harness could be its undoing.

“If the rope gets caught, it’s going to get destroyed,” she said.

However, Kunneke has a lot of confidence in Smokey’s chances.

“He’ll totally survive,” she said. “They’re tough animals.”

As winter comes, she thinks Smokey will move to lower environs.

“He should naturally, hopefully, know to go lower with the elk,” Kunneke said.

Llamas are members of the Camelid family and are adaptable to many different terrains and climates.. The hearty species were domesticated in the Andes of South America and are raised for fiber, meat, and used as pack animals.

Llamas Unlimited rents llamas for hunters and hikers to help carry supplies. However, the service is so popular there is a roughly year-long waitlist for their services.

Llamas are also commonly used as guard animals locally, because of their size and territorial nature. Adults can weigh between 250 and 450 pounds and are about 3.5 feet tall at the shoulder and 5.5-6 feet tall at the head.

To help: www.gofundme.com/f/bring-smokey-home-from-wyoming-backcountry?cp_src=d