Berserk llama syndrome or berserk male syndrome, as its name suggest, is a psychological condition experienced by human-raised “male” llamas and alpacas, which cause them to exhibit extreme aggressive behavior towards humans, even with their masters.

There is no known treatment for this condition. For severe cases of Berserk llama syndrome, the handlers usually result to euthanasia. However, this syndrome can be prevented through proper training and male castration before it reaches puberty.

When llamas interact with other adult llamas roughly, such as biting and chest ramming, these can be signs of the berserk llama syndrome. However, not all aggressive llamas have this condition. Those who are extremely territorial and the aggressiveness are being directed toward humans can be dangerous. Female llamas can also have this condition, but their aggressiveness is only shown by spitting and simple handling difficulties.

Berserk llama syndrome is caused by llama imprinting on their human handlers wherein they consider their masters to be fellow llamas. This kind of imprinting is usually caused by bottle-feeding or extreme isolation from other llamas.