Can you tell a guanaco from an alpaca?

By Tim Young

From SIF SATELLITE 56, Winter 1999/2000

guanacos

Most of us have heard of the llama and the alpaca. But do you know the difference between the two? And have you ever heard of the guanaco? The vicuña?

All these animals are from a group called lamoids. They are related to camels, but do not have humps. Like camels, however, they will spit when they are annoyed, and have the same complex stomach with three compartments. It is believed that the camel family—camelids—developed in North America, but in the Pleistocene era they were separated, with camels migrating across the Bering Strait to Asia, and the ancestors of the guanaco moving south. Any cameloids left in North America then died out.

Lamoids are slimmer than camels, with longer legs. The guanaco is the most widely distributed of the four, from the Andes all the way down to Tierra del Fuego. Guanacos have a brownish upper body and neck, with white at the lower extremities. An adult guanaco stands 110cm (43 inches) at the shoulder. Like all lamoids, it is valued for its fleece for use making clothing and other textiles.

Vicuña fleece was once reserved for the Incan nobility. It is an excellent form of insulation. The vicuña is a fast and graceful animal found in the central Andes, and stands 90 cm (36 inches) at the shoulder. Like the guanaco, it is a wild animal. “They were hunted because their fur was beautiful,” says Mioko, “so they are almost extinct, and they are now protected.”

Llamas were domesticated from guanacos by the Incas or their predecessors, no later than 4000 B.C. They are maintained in herds in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina. The llama is the largest lamoid, standing 120 cm (47 inches) at the shoulder, and is used as a source of food, wool, hides, tallow for candles, and dried dung for fuel, in addition to its main function as a pack animal. Its hair is usually varying shades of brown, although pure blacks and whites can be found on the animal.

The alpaca was domesticated at around the same time as the llama. Adult alpacas stand 90 cm (35 inches) at the shoulder and have more rounded bodies than llamas, and hold their tails close to their bodies, while llamas let their tails stick straight up. Mioko says they can run 50 kph and have faces identical to camels. Perhaps because vicuña have become endangered, alpacas are called the most important lamoid for fleece production. There are two breeds of alpaca, the suri, with fine, silky fleece; and the huacaya, with shorter, coarser hair. Like the llama, it is normally sheared once every two years.

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