60 Fun Facts About Llama

On which continent were llamas domesticated?

Andean cultures have used them for meat and as pack animals since long before Columbus.

What is a baby llama called?

The word is Spanish for 'baby' and is used for young alpacas, vicuñas and guanacos too.

Llamas belong to which family of animals?

Early European writers compared them to sheep, but the resemblance to camels was soon recognised; the obvious difference is that llamas have no hump.

Which wild animal is the ancestor of the domestic llama?

DNA shows the alpaca descends from a different wild camelid, though the two lines have interbred a lot.

Roughly what share of its body weight can a pack llama carry?

That is good for about 8 to 13 kilometres a day; overload one and it simply lies down and refuses to move.

From which language did Europeans adopt the word 'llama'?

It was historically spelled 'lama' or 'glama', which survives in the scientific name Lama glama.

Where did the ancestors of llamas originally evolve, about 40 million years ago?

They only reached South America about three million years ago and had died out in North America by the end of the last ice age.

The formation of which land bridge let camelids spread south from their original homeland?

Old World camels went the other way, crossing from North America into Asia over the Bering land bridge.

How many compartments does a llama's stomach have?

Cows, sheep and goats have four; llamas are not true ruminants, though they still chew the cud.

What feature of a llama's digestive system lets it survive on very little water?

The long colon reabsorbs water, vitamins and electrolytes from waste before it leaves the body.

What is a llama's mating call, made by an aroused male, called?

It sounds like gargling with a buzzing edge and continues throughout mating.

Roughly how long is a llama's gestation?

Mothers cannot lick their newborns clean because their tongue barely reaches outside the mouth; they nuzzle and hum instead.

Why can't a mother llama lick her newborn clean?

The attached tongue extends no more than about 13 millimetres, so she nuzzles and hums to the cria instead.

In what position do llamas mate, unusually for a large animal?

The 'kush' position is shared with big cats and dogs, and mating lasts an unusually long 20 to 45 minutes.

At what time of day are most llama births?

Daytime births help crias avoid dying of hypothermia in the freezing Andean nights.

Which of these is a common way llamas communicate with each other?

A loud, shrill rising-and-falling call is the herd's alarm signal.

What does a llama with its ears laid back usually mean?

Ears perked upward signal happiness or curiosity, and a groaning 'mwa' means fear or anger.

Among llamas themselves, what is the usual reason for spitting?

Well-raised llamas rarely spit at people; the angrier the llama, the deeper in its stomach it draws the material from.

Which of these is a typical move in a fight between male llamas?

Fights also involve spitting, chest-ramming and kicking, mostly to knock the rival off balance.

Llamas are used in North America to guard which livestock?

A single gelded male bonds with the flock and drives off coyotes and feral dogs; two llamas tend to bond with each other instead.

Why is one guard llama better than several?

A gelded two-year-old male bonds closely with its new charges and needs no training.

Which llama was certified as a therapy animal in the Pacific Northwest in 2008?

Therapy llamas now visit nursing homes and hospitals; the Mayo Clinic says animal therapy can reduce pain and anxiety.

Scientists have studied llama antibodies as a possible weapon against which illnesses?

Their unusually small antibodies, called nanobodies, can bind targets that human antibodies cannot reach.

Llamas were the only beasts of burden under which Andean civilisation?

For Inca nobles the animal was symbolic, and llama figures were buried with the dead.

The Inca deity Urcuchillay was depicted as what?

Some historians argue the sheer number of llamas in the southern Peruvian highlands helped the Inca state rise.

Which pre-Inca people depicted llamas realistically on ceramics and buried them with important people?

One scholar argues llama dung fertiliser is what made the Andean switch to farming possible.

In Aymara mythology, the Heavenly Llama drinks from the ocean and produces what?

At the end of time, the Aymara believe, llamas will return to the springs and ponds they came from.

Under Spanish rule, some 300,000 llamas carried ore from the mines at which Bolivian city?

Horses, mules and donkeys later took over most of the hauling.

Llamas were first brought to the United States in the late 1800s for what purpose?

Foot-and-mouth import bans kept numbers tiny until interest as livestock took off in the 1970s.

At the peak of the American llama bubble, animals sold for as much as what?

With no real market for fibre or meat, the only value was breeding more llamas, a classic speculative bubble that duly burst.

By 2017 the US llama population had dropped below what figure?

The Great Recession dried up investment and older animals died without being replaced.

Which is the most obvious visual difference between the two domestic South American camelids?

Alpaca fibre is generally pricier and its colour more uniform across the body.

A llama's distinctive curved ears are often described as being shaped like what?

Alpaca ears are shorter and straighter.

What is the typical lifespan of a llama?

Some individuals pass 30.

How tall can a full-grown llama stand at the top of its head?

Adults weigh anywhere from 130 to 272 kg; a newborn cria is 9 to 14 kg.

Which naturalist first classified the llama, placing it in the genus Camelus in 1758?

Cuvier separated the llamas into their own genus, Lama, in 1800.

The camelid group Tylopoda gets its name, 'bump-footed', from what?

Llama feet are narrow with two separated toes, each with its own soft pad, which is gentler on trails than hooves.

What is the wild ancestor of the alpaca?

The alpaca's genus was changed from Lama to Vicugna in 2001 after DNA evidence.

What are the two modern breeds of alpaca?

Suri fibre grows in straight locks while Huacaya fibre is crimped and bundled.

Why is vicuña wool so expensive?

Only about 6,000 vicuñas were left when the species was declared endangered in 1974; there are around 350,000 today.

To how few animals had the vicuña fallen when it was declared endangered in 1974?

Peru and Bolivia's 1969 conservation convention and a wool-trade ban helped it recover.

How fast can the llama's wild ancestor run?

They also swim well and survive in parts of the Atacama Desert by feeding on fog-watered plants.

How does the red blood cell count of the llama's wild ancestor compare with a human's?

The extra cells let them live at altitudes up to 4,000 metres.

How many living species of camelid are there in total?

Three camels (dromedary, Bactrian and wild Bactrian) plus llama, alpaca, vicuña and guanaco.

In which 2000 Disney film is an Incan ruler turned into a llama?

Kuzco is voiced by David Spade; the film began life as a musical epic called Kingdom of the Sun with songs by Sting.

Who voices the llama-fied Emperor Kuzco?

Eartha Kitt plays the scheming Yzma and Patrick Warburton her dim henchman Kronk.

Which battle-royale video game uses piñata llamas as loot containers?

Cracking one open spills building materials and ammunition.

In which game series is the llama the national symbol of the fictional country where it is set?

Maxis has scattered llamas through its games for decades.

Which programming language's famous introductory book is nicknamed 'the Llama book'?

O'Reilly's animal covers made the nickname stick.

Which game developer named his company Llamasoft in honour of the animal?

His games are famous for being full of llamas, camels and sheep.

In the web series Llamas with Hats, what are the two llamas called?

Carl, in the green hat, describes himself as 'a dangerous sociopath with a long history of violence'.

Llamas with Hats was made by FilmCow, the studio behind which earlier viral short?

Jason Steele founded FilmCow after that video took off; the llama series ran twelve episodes from 2009.

Most animal bones found at Machu Picchu came from which animals?

They naturally live around 4,000 metres, so they were probably brought up to the 2,400-metre site.

How much milk does a female llama produce at one time?

So crias must suckle very often; the milk is lower in fat and salt than cow's milk but richer in calcium.

Llamas are described as very clean pasture animals because they do what?

Their manure has no offensive smell, and like horses they enjoy a good dust bath.

What triggers ovulation in a female llama?

Because they are induced ovulators, females never go into heat and are often fertilised on the first attempt.

At roughly what age do male llamas become sexually mature?

Females mature much earlier, at around twelve months.

What is the extinct genus of North American llamas called?

Llama-like animals roamed California, Texas, Florida and Utah 25,000 years ago.

Llama wool contains only a small amount of which greasy substance found in sheep's wool?

The fine undercoat goes into garments; the coarse outer guard hair into rugs and lead ropes.

How many teeth does an adult llama have in total?

The dental formula is incisors 1/3, canines 1/1, premolars 2/2 and molars 3/3.