• Llamas are part of the camel family, along with alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos, which inhabit mountainous Andean countries such as Peru and Bolivia. Like their desert relatives, llamas require little water, gaining enough moisture from eating plants, shrubs, and lichen.
• Llamas, although often conflated with alpacas, are larger in size than their squat-faced cousins, with coarser hair and long banana-shaped ears.
“We are told that the oldest inhabitants in Peru do not cease to be agitated by the earthquakes, but they probably see beyond each shock, and reflect that there are plenty more to come.”–George Eliot, Middlemarch • Llamas and alpacas have wool that can be sheared, spun, and used for making clothes. The softer and finer alpaca wool, however, is more popular than the heavier wool produced…
