The llama is a South American animal, part of the camel family. Like camels, they have padded, even-toed feet and split lips. I was surprised to learn that their common ancestors originated in North America and lived on this continent for over forty million years. These earlier animals evolved into camels in Asia and Africa and the lama family of llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos in South America. They had only died out in North America some ten or twelve thousand years ago.

In South America, llamas live mainly in the high Andes. Vicunas and guanacos are wild. Vicunas are famed for their fine wool; its softness has brought them to the brink of extinction. Guanacos are believed to be the forerunners of llamas; the two species are similar in many respects, though the guanaco’s wool is fine and shorter. While guanacos do not have the official status of endangered, their numbers are a tiny fraction of what they were a century ago.

Alpacas and llamas have been domesticated for centuries. The alpaca is a smaller animal than the llama, with wool that is more highly prized. There are far more llamas than alpacas in North America.

Archaeological findings indicate that llamas were living with man by 3000 B.C. The vast Inca empire, which reached its peak toward the end of the Middle Ages in Europe, used llamas in many ways. They were beasts of burden, essential in a mountainous society that had not utilized the wheel. Their wool was used for blankets, ponchos, and other items. They played an important part in the religious and ceremonial life of the Incas: many llamas were sacrificed to the gods.
One of the world’s most versatile domestic animals, the llama is still used as a beast of burden and for wool, primarily in the Bolivian and Peruvian highlands. Its dung is used for fuel–it is said to be odorless when burned. Less and less are llamas used for long-distance transport, though, as trucks reach further into remote areas.

Llamas were brought to the United States during the nineteenth century and early in this one by William Randolph Hearst and others. In the 1930s, an importation ban was imposed on South American livestock, for fear that they might bring in foot and mouth disease. In the 1980s, importation of llamas and alpacas was resumed in a limited way, with the animals coming in through special government-run importation quarantines and facilities.