With their wooly coats and cute faces, alpacas may seem a world away from the cut and thrust of politics.
But one election candidate may be hoping the gentle nature of these animals has a calming influence as he bids to enter the lion's den of local government.
Alpaca farmer Lee Kane is standing for election for the Alliance Party in the Ballymoney area of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.
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The 39-year-old from near Mosside has been an alpaca farmer for around 15 years and has a small herd of 10 - six female and four male - which he shears for their fleece.
He said: "Being an alpaca farmer is brilliant. You can see that they're such quiet animals. They're really gentle animals.
"They're great because they give us a beautiful fleece. It's stronger and softer than cashmere and it's such a wonderful, beautiful, soft fleece.
"But more than that, they're just great animals to be around."
Mr Kane, who works for a children's charity helping those with lived experience of care, said keeping alpacas helps ease the pressures of his job.
He said: "My day job is quite a stressful job and I deal with quite a lot of difficult issues in my day-to-day work.
"So to be able to come home, make a cup of tea, go out and sit in the garden and just have these animals potter about around me is really calming and really relaxing."
Their names include April, who was born on April Fool's Day and is the "cheekiest of the group", Cali who is "the matriarch", and Elsa, named by some youngsters after the Disney princess from the movie Frozen.
And he hopes the herd will grow in the next year with the arrival of some baby alpacas, known as crias.
Mr Kane said there were very few alpaca farmers in Northern Ireland when he started out, but there are now around 30 to 40 people keeping the animals, which originate from South America.
He is a founder member and former chair of the Northern Ireland Alpaca Group, which helps the growing community "know how best to look after our animals" and "keep them happy, healthy and safe".
Mr Kane moved to Scotland for university, studying French and Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews.
He said that after returning home to Northern Ireland, he joined Alliance as he wanted to contribute to "making this place the best it could be".
"I've been involved for about 10 years now working with different candidates and promoting different community issues across the local community," he said.
"And this year, I decided it was time for me to take the big step and put my name on the ballot paper and go out knocking doors and asking people to give me their vote rather than someone else."
Mr Kane said it was "very surreal" seeing his face on election posters on lampposts, but the response from the public has been "fantastic".
He said: "It's been really encouraging to see the desire of people for something different, for a different message.
"We've never had an Alliance councillor in Ballymoney before, and I can really feel that desire for change coming through."
He said Causeway Coast and Glens is "one of the most beautiful places in the world" but "we also know it could be so much better".
"We know that there's things we could be doing to make things better for the people and for the area as a whole. So I'm really looking forward to getting that opportunity to bring that progressive voice," he said.
"I am really looking forward to continuing the conversations with people about that shared vision and about how we can make this area that we all call home the best that it possibly can be."
The council election takes place on May 18. Take a look at the full list of candidates.
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