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Unlike other animals which can destroy pasture when they graze, llamas and alpacas trim the grass instead of pulling it up by the roots. They also walk gently on the land, so they don’t tend to make gouges or furrows with their feet.

You don’t need much land to keep a llama happy. Llamas and their cousins the alpacas need less land and food than many other farm animals. Depending on the quality of the pasture, one acre of land is enough to sustain four llamas (or as many as five to 10 alpacas). That’s compared to cows, […]

Like Labradors and miniature horses, there’s something soothing about llamas. They can be trained as professional comforters, working as therapy animals in hospital, schools and nursing homes.

Researchers are working to create a universal flu vaccine that would be effective against every strain of the flu, and llamas are playing a big part of the research. Scientists have developed a nasal spray derived from several llama antibodies that works by targeting many strains of the flu all at once.

Mama llamas often hum to communicate with their babies, called crias. Regular humming helps the babies learn to recognize their mothers. Llamas also hum for lots of other reasons, like when they’re anxious, tired, uncomfortable, excited, or just curious.

Llamas have long, banana-shaped ears, while alpacas have short, pear-shaped ears. Llamas also have longer faces, while alpacas have more of a shorter, blunt face, what they describe as a “smooshed in” look.

While they look like their cousins, there are lots of subtle differences. Llamas are taller and weight more than alpacas. Alpacas weigh an average of about 150 pounds while llamas can weigh as much as 400 pounds or more. An alpaca can be about 34 to 36 inches at the shoulder, while a llama typically […]

Llamas don’t exactly keep their feelings to themselves. All camelids stick out their tongues to express their irritation.