Llama

The llama, Lama glama, is a domesticated animal from the Andes and a member of the camel family, the camelids. Its closest relatives are the other three South American camelids: the guanaco and the vicuña, which are wild, and the alpaca, which is also domesticated. Together with the dromedary and the Bactrian camel of the Old World, they form the camel family. Llamas and camels share a common ancestor that lived in North America millions of years ago; one group crossed into Asia and became the camels, and another moved south into South America. Like camels, llamas have padded feet with two toes, a split upper lip and a stomach with three compartments, but they have no hump. Genetic studies show that the llama was domesticated from the guanaco, and the alpaca mostly from the vicuña. The llama is the only South American camelid used mainly as a pack animal. Its name comes from Quechua, the language of the Inca.

Llamas and alpacas are often confused. They are close relatives that can even interbreed, producing a hybrid called a huarizo, but they were bred for different jobs and are easy to tell apart. Size is the first clue. A llama stands about 1.1 to 1.2 meters at the shoulder and weighs around 130 to 200 kilograms, while an alpaca stands only about 90 centimeters and weighs around 50 to 80 kilograms, so a llama can be twice as heavy. The ears are the second clue: llamas have long, curved ears shaped like bananas, while alpacas have short, pointed ears like spears. Llamas also have a longer face, while alpacas have a short, fluffy one. Their coats differ as well. Alpacas were bred for fine, soft fiber, with fleece that covers almost the whole body, while llamas have coarser wool and less hair on the face and legs. Llamas descend from the guanaco and were bred as pack animals, while alpacas descend mostly from the vicuña and are kept for their wool.

The llama is the largest South American camelid. Adults stand about 1.1 to 1.2 meters at the shoulder, and with their long neck the top of the head can reach around 1.7 to 1.8 meters, about the height of an adult person. They usually weigh 130 to 200 kilograms, and males tend to be a little larger than females. A newborn llama, called a cria, weighs about 9 to 16 kilograms. Llamas have slim legs, a small head with large dark eyes and long, curved ears. Their feet are not hooves: each foot has two toes with tough nails and a soft, leathery pad underneath, which gives them good grip on rocks and does less damage to the ground than the hooves of sheep or cattle. Their wool comes in many natural colors, including white, cream, brown, gray, black and patched mixes. The classic Andean llama of Peru and Bolivia, with less wool, is called q'ara, while woolly types are known as ch'aku.

There are no truly wild llamas anywhere. The llama exists only because people bred it from wild guanacos, and every llama alive today descends from domestic herds. Archaeological and genetic studies suggest that domestication began between about 4,000 and 7,000 years ago in the high puna grasslands of the central Andes, where hunters first managed and then penned herds of guanacos. Over many generations, people selected calmer, stronger and woollier animals. The llamas seen roaming freely on the altiplano, without fences or a herder in sight, belong to families that let them graze on open land and gather them later, often marked with colored tassels in their ears. The Andes' wild camelids are the guanaco, the llama's ancestor, which lives from Peru to Tierra del Fuego, and the vicuña, the smallest and finest wooled camelid, on the high puna of Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Both are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.

Llamas live mainly in the Andean highlands of South America. Bolivia has the largest number in the world, and Peru is second, with about 746,000 llamas in its 2012 agricultural census. Smaller but important herds live in the Puna of northwestern Argentina, in the far north of Chile and in the highlands of Ecuador, where llamas had become rare and have been brought back by community programs. Their home is the puna and the altiplano, the vast high grassland above about 3,500 meters, and in Ecuador the wetter páramo. Here the air is thin, nights drop well below freezing, and only tough grasses and low shrubs grow. Llamas cope thanks to their thick wool and their blood, which carries oxygen very efficiently. They also do well at lower altitudes, and since the late twentieth century many thousands have been taken to North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Patagonia, despite its fame, is guanaco country rather than llama country.

Llamas are herbivores. On the puna they graze mainly on the tough bunch grasses known locally as ichu, along with sedges, small herbs and the green plants of the high Andean wetlands called bofedales, where herders often take them in the dry season. When grass is scarce they also browse on shrubs and mosses. They are not true ruminants like cattle and sheep, but they chew the cud in a similar way, and their three chambered stomach extracts a lot of nutrition from poor, dry forage. An adult llama eats only around 2 percent of its body weight in dry food each day, less than many other livestock of the same size. Their split upper lip lets them pick the plants they want, and their padded feet do less harm to fragile soils than hooves. Like camels, llamas can go for some time without drinking, getting much of their water from plants. On farms outside the Andes they eat pasture grass and hay.

Llamas spit mainly to settle arguments with other llamas. In a herd, spitting is a way to say back off, used in disputes over food, space or rank, or by a female that does not want a male's attention. A llama about to spit usually warns first: it pins its ears back, raises its nose and makes a gurgling sound. What comes out can be just saliva and air, or a green, foul smelling mix of saliva and partly digested food. Afterward llamas often hang their lower lip open for a while, apparently to get rid of the bad taste. Well handled llamas rarely spit at people; those that do have often been raised by hand without other llamas. Spitting is only one part of how llamas communicate. Herd members hum softly to stay in contact, mothers and young hum back and forth, and a loud, high pitched alarm call warns the whole herd of danger. Males compete for rank by neck wrestling and chest pushing.

For thousands of years, Andean peoples have depended on llamas, above all as pack animals. An adult male can carry about 25 to 30 kilograms, roughly a quarter of its weight, for 20 kilometers or more a day over steep trails where wheels cannot go, and if the load is too heavy it simply lies down and refuses to move. In the Inca Empire, huge llama caravans carried food, salt and textiles along the road network, and llamas were counted, offered in ceremonies and owned by the state. Caravans still cross parts of the altiplano today, trading salt between highland and valley communities. Llamas also give wool for ropes, blankets and textiles, meat eaten fresh or dried as charqui, hides and dung, which is burned as cooking fuel where wood is scarce and used to fertilize fields. In the United States, Canada and Australia, guard llamas, usually single gelded males, live with flocks of sheep and goats and chase away coyotes, foxes and dogs.

Llamas are not endangered. As a domestic animal, the llama is not evaluated by the IUCN Red List, which assesses wild species, and there are several million llamas in South America, most of them in Bolivia and Peru, plus large numbers kept on other continents. That was not always guaranteed. After the Spanish conquest, the arrival of sheep, cattle and horses, new diseases and the collapse of the Inca system caused llama herds to shrink sharply, and in some areas, such as much of Ecuador, llamas almost disappeared. Today the concerns are different. In many Andean communities young people are moving to cities, fewer families keep large herds, and crossbreeding between llamas and alpacas can erode local breeds shaped over centuries. Organizations in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina work to improve llama fiber and meat, protect traditional breeds and help herders earn more. The vicuña, a wild relative, recovered from near extinction in the 1960s only thanks to strict protection.