Who are alpacas and llamas? What is the difference? After almost a year of living in Peru, I became very interested in understanding this. So, alpaca and llama are animals of the camelid family, whose homeland is the high mountainous regions of the Andes of South America. Before arriving in Latin America, I personally had never heard anything about alpacas, and I had a vague idea about llamas. But it turns out that these are different animals and their purposes are also completely different.
The easiest way to tell a llama from an alpaca is to look at their ears. The llama's ears are long and curved, shaped like a banana, while the alpaca's ears are short and triangular, like the tip of a spear. Here's a look at the photos.
You can also distinguish a llama and an alpaca by their “face” - the llama has a more elongated muzzle, while the alpaca has a flattened muzzle. In addition, a llama usually has almost no hair on its face and head, but an alpaca has long, shaggy bangs that fall over its eyes.
In addition, a llama is twice the size of an alpaca. Adult alpacas weigh 45-80kg, and llamas weigh 90-160kg.
By the way, these animals also differ in character. Alpacas are shy, quiet and very intelligent. They rarely bite, kick or spit, that is, they don’t do what llamas are so famous for (it’s better not to get close to llamas, otherwise they might spit!). Although it happens that alpacas also spit - pregnant female alpacas spit at male alpacas so that they don’t even have any thoughts! :)
Alpacas love to live in a herd among their relatives, while llamas are more independent in nature and sometimes prefer to be alone. But it’s much easier to get feedback from them (I remember how on an excursion to Chile the llamas jumped up to our bus because they knew that they would be pampered with cookies there! True, they ate the cookies with pleasure, but they didn’t want to be petted). Moreover, llamas are often used as “herders”, including herding alpacas!
The llama's coat is coarser on the outside with a soft undercoat on the inside. Alpaca has only one layer of wool and it is very, very soft. Despite the large size of llamas and their incredibly thick coats, they produce much less wool than alpacas. The secret is that alpaca wool is very, very dense.
That is why the Indians of Peru domesticated the alpaca and carefully bred it for 6,000 years. Over the same period of time, llamas were also bred, but not for wool, but as a carrier animal. Llamas have a straighter back, which is good for carrying things.
There are two types of alpaca, Huacaya and Suri. Huacaya alpacas have short fur that sticks out perpendicular to the skin, so they look like plush toys. The Suri alpaca has longer wool, curling at the bottom into dreadlocks.
Alpaca wool is very soft and at the same time very durable and light, almost waterproof, with an excellent heat-insulating effect. It does not contain lanolin (a fat produced by the skin glands of sheep), so alpaca items are absolutely hypoallergenic. They also don’t itch like things made from sheep’s wool.
Alpaca wool varies widely in color - from blue-black to snow-white, with multiple shades in between.
Scientists have found that the alpaca appeared by breeding Vicuña, and the llama is a descendant of Guanaco. All these animals belong to the camelid family. If you cross a llama and an alpaca, you get a huarizo - something in between, but in general neither this nor that - neither soft wool nor a hardy back.
