Llama

• 1. Introduction

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  The llama holds a place in Aymara mythology. Its Heavenly Llama is said to drink water from the ocean and release it as rain. In Aymara belief about the end of time, llamas will return to the springs and ponds from which they came. The real animal, Lama glama, is a domesticated South American camelid. Andean cultures have raised it for meat and for carrying loads since before Europeans arrived. How did a creature with roots on the plains of North America end up in the Andes? What makes its body and its habits so unusual among large animals? And why did people in the United States once treat it like a speculative fortune?

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• 2. Plains Ancestors

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  Forty million years ago, on the Great Plains of North America, the ancestors of llamas are thought to have first appeared. Camelids began in North America, and no fossils of their earlier forms have been found in the Old World. The ancestors of Old World camels crossed over the Bering Land Bridge. About three million years ago, the Isthmus of Panama formed and let camelids spread south during the Great American Interchange. In South America they evolved further. Back north, camelids were extinct by 10,000-12,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age.

  In the 19th century, paleontologists Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope, and Othniel Charles Marsh uncovered a vast and unexpected extinct fauna in North America. Their finds showed that llamas were not always confined to South America. Abundant llama-like remains turned up in Pleistocene deposits in the Rocky Mountains and Central America. Some fossil llamas were much larger than the animals alive today. The North American llamas belong to an extinct genus called Hemiauchenia. Llama-like animals would have been a common sight 25,000 years ago in what is now California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Missouri, and Florida.

  In 1758, Carl Linnaeus listed llamas and alpacas in the genus Camelus in his Systema Naturae. Early writers had compared llamas to sheep, but their resemblance to camels was soon recognized. Georges Cuvier separated them in 1800 under the name lama, together with the guanaco. Four forms are commonly distinguished by South Americans: the llama, the alpaca, the guanaco, and the vicuña. Guanacos and vicuñas live in the wild, while llamas and alpacas exist only as domesticated animals. DNA analysis has confirmed that the guanaco is the wild ancestor of the llama and the vicuña is the wild ancestor of the alpaca. Even so, a considerable amount of hybridization between the llama and alpaca lines has occurred. Naturalists still argue over whether the group holds one, two, or more species. Together with the three species of true camels, the genus Lama forms a section called Tylopoda, meaning "bump-footed", after the peculiar bumps on the soles of their feet.

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• 3. Body and Digestion

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  A full-grown llama can reach 1.7 to 1.8 m at the top of its head and weigh between 130 and 272 kg. Llamas typically live for 15 to 25 years, and some survive 30 years or more. Their ears are long and curve slightly inward, a shape known as "banana" ears. There is no dorsal hump, which is the most obvious visual difference from a camel. The feet are narrow, with widely separated toes that each have a distinct plantar pad. The tail is short, and the fiber is long, woolly, and soft.

  Compared with an alpaca, a llama is larger, with a longer head and curved ears. The skeleton counts 7 cervical vertebrae, 12 dorsal, 7 lumbar, and 4 sacral, followed by 15 to 20 caudal ones.

  Inside, the llama is not a ruminant, even though it chews its food a second time. Cows, sheep, and goats have four stomach compartments, while llamas have three: the rumen, omasum, and abomasum. Those chambers ferment tough, high-cellulose foods, which are then regurgitated and chewed again. The colon is extremely long and complex, and its job is to reabsorb water, vitamins, and electrolytes from waste. That length lets a llama survive on much less water than other animals, a major advantage in the arid climates where it lives.

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• 4. Herd Life

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  Rank in a llama herd is never fixed. Any llama can climb or fall on the social ladder by picking small fights, and males do this most often to find out who will dominate. Their fights look dramatic, with spitting, chest ramming, neck wrestling, and kicking meant to knock the rival off balance. Females mostly spit to control other herd members. The spit itself works as a gauge of temper. The more irritated the llama, the further back into its three stomach compartments it reaches for the material it spits.

  A loud, shrill alarm call that rhythmically rises and falls sends the whole herd on alert when one llama hears a strange noise or feels threatened. Llamas also hum to one another as a way of communicating. A groan, or a sound like "mwa", usually signals fear or anger. Ears laid back mean an unhappy or agitated llama, and ears perked upward mean happiness or curiosity. A male makes a buzzing, gargling sound called an "orgle" when aroused, and he keeps it up throughout mating.

  Human handling shapes the adult animal. Llamas that are well socialized and trained to halter and lead after weaning are friendly and extremely curious, and most approach people easily. Bottle-fed or over-handled youngsters grow into difficult adults, who treat humans the way they treat each other, with spitting, kicking, and neck wrestling. Spitting at a human is rare when a llama is correctly reared.

  Pastured llamas are very clean, choosing one or a few places to defecate and urinate, and their manure has no offensive odor. Like horses, they sometimes enjoy a dust bath. A person approaching from behind can startle a llama into a kick, and the powerful hind legs behind that kick are a key reason llamas work well as livestock guardians.

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• 5. Birth and Crias

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  Female llamas never go into estrus, the state commonly called heat. They are induced ovulators, which means mating itself triggers the release of an egg, and fertilization is often achieved on the first attempt. Females reach puberty at about 12 months old, while males do not become sexually mature until around three years of age. Mating takes place in a kush position, with the animals lying down, and lasts 20-45 minutes. Both traits are unusual in a large animal.

  Breeders use three methods. In harem mating, the male stays with the females for most of the year. In field mating, a female is turned out with a male for a while. This takes the least labor but is the worst at predicting a birth date, so an ultrasound is combined with the exposure dates. Hand mating is the most efficient method but demands the most human work. The pair is penned together, then separated and re-mated every other day until one refuses. Usually two matings are possible, though some stud males routinely refuse a female more than once. If nothing results within two to three weeks, the female is mated again.

  Gestation averages 11.5 months, or about 350 days. Births usually happen between 8 am and noon, in the warm daylight hours, which may protect newborns from hypothermia during cold Andean nights. The mother gives birth standing, and the whole birth is usually quick and trouble-free, finished in under 30 minutes. A baby llama is called a cria, from the Spanish for "baby", and the name also applies to young alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. A cria weighs 9 to 14 kg at birth. The herd's females gather around to protect it against male llamas and potential predators.

  Within the first hour, the cria is standing, walking, and trying to suckle. Its mother cannot lick it clean, because her tongue is attached and does not reach far outside the mouth. Instead she nuzzles and hums to the newborn. Llama milk is lower in fat and salt than cow or goat milk, and higher in phosphorus and calcium. A female gives only about 60 ml at a time, so the cria must suckle often to get what it needs.

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• 6. Andean Burden Bearers

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  The Moche of pre-Columbian Peru rendered llamas in realistic ceramics. They also placed llamas and llama parts in the burials of important people, as offerings or provisions for the afterlife. Scholar Alex Chepstow-Lusty has argued that widespread agriculture could replace hunting and gathering only because llama dung served as fertilizer.

  In the Inca Empire, llamas were the only beasts of burden, and many peoples under Inca rule already had long traditions of herding them. A loaded llama can carry about 25 to 30% of its body weight for 8 to 13 km, or 5-8 miles, and it can learn simple tasks after a few repetitions. For the Inca nobility the llama was a symbol, and llama figures were often buried with the dead. The deity Urcuchillay appeared in the form of a multicolored llama. Carl Troll has argued that the huge numbers of llamas in the southern Peruvian highlands were essential to the rise of the empire. The empire's greatest extent roughly matched the widest spread of alpacas and llamas in pre-Hispanic America.

  When the Spanish conquered the region, one main job for llamas was bringing ore down from mountain mines. Gregory de Bolivar estimated that as many as 300,000 were employed hauling produce from the Potosí mines alone. Horses, mules, and donkeys later reduced the llama's importance as a pack animal.

  Further south, the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen observed the Mapuche of Mocha Island using hueques, possibly a llama type, as plow animals in 1614. In Chile, hueque populations declined toward extinction in the 16th and 17th centuries as European livestock replaced them. The causes are unclear, though sheep competed with the hueques for the same role. By the late 18th century, only the Mapuche from Mariquina and Huequén, next to Angol, still raised the animal. As of 2007, South America held over seven million llamas and alpacas.

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• 7. American Boom and Bust

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  Llamas first reached the United States in the late 1800s as zoo exhibits. Restrictions on importing livestock from South America, aimed at hoof and mouth disease, kept the numbers low. Commercial interest was also lacking until the late 20th century. In the 1970s, interest in llamas as livestock began to grow, and farmers bred more of them. Both the price and the number of llamas climbed rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s.

  The market had an odd shape. Almost no one in the US wanted llama fiber or meat, and the value of guard llamas was limited. The main value lay in breeding more animals, which is a classic sign of a speculative bubble in agriculture. By 2002, the US Department of Agriculture counted almost 145,000 llamas, and some animals sold for as much as $220,000.

  Then the lack of any end market caused prices and numbers to crash. The Great Recession dried up investment capital, and fewer animals were bred while older ones died of old age. By 2017, fewer than 40,000 llamas remained in the US. The closely related alpaca went through a similar bubble, and it burst shortly after the llama's.

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• 8. Guards, Wool, and Pop Culture

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  Sheep producers in North America began using llamas as livestock guards in the early 1980s. They are most common in the western United States, where coyotes and feral dogs are prevalent. Typically a single gelding does the job. Research suggests that several guard llamas work worse than one, because multiple males tend to bond with each other instead of the flock. A gelded male of two years old bonds closely with its charges, and some bond faster if introduced just before lambing. Producers describe a special bond between lambs and their guard llama. The value of livestock saved each year exceeds a llama's purchase cost and upkeep, and the llama needs no training and little care.

  In 2008, Rojo the Llama, based in the Pacific Northwest, was certified as a therapy animal. Llamas now serve in nursing homes and hospitals. The Mayo Clinic says animal-assisted therapy can reduce pain, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. In medicine, researchers have found that llamas carry antibodies well suited to treating certain diseases. Scientists have studied how they might help fight coronaviruses, including MERS and SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19.

  A llama's coat has two layers. The fine undercoat goes into handicrafts and garments, while the coarser outer guard hair makes rugs, wall hangings, and lead ropes. Colors range from white or grey to reddish-brown, brown, dark brown, and black. Measured in micrometres, vicuña fiber is the finest at 6-10, while Merino sheep run 12-20. Llama fiber is coarser, at 20-30 for the Tapada type and 30-40 for the Ccara type. Vicuña fiber is highly valued, but each animal produces only a small amount.

  Outside the Andes, llamas have become a Western pop icon. The game company Maxis uses llamas extensively in The Sims, where they are the national symbol of the country in which the broader Sim series is set. In Fortnite, piñata llamas are loot containers. Game developer Jeff Minter named his company Llamasoft in honor of the animal. The programming language Perl has its Llama book. In the 2000 Disney animated film The Emperor's New Groove, an Incan emperor is turned into a llama.

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