Llamas and alpacas

If you ever were at a zoo you will have met these two really cute animals, for me, they at least count as my favorite animals. But till a few years back I always had problems knowing which is which unless one of them was spitting I never knew which was a llama and which was an alpaca. And I know a lot of people who have the same issue. So for all of them, I am writing this article so the next time you go to the zoo you will know which is which.

As you might already have assumed Alpacas and llamas are indeed related they are both parts of the camel family, Camelidae, to be more specific they both fall into the under category of the lamoids. In that category, there are even two more relatives of Llamas and Alpacas, the vicuña and the guanaco. These two are wild species and less domesticated, Llamas and alpacas are not only domesticated but are used for their fleece and also for transportation. All four are home to Peru and Bolivia and what is very interesting is that they can reproduce with each other and still have fertile offspring.

But now let’s get to the differences and how you can tell them apart.

The first main difference is their face and ears, llamas have longer faces and long banana-shaped ears, and alpacas, on the other hand, have short smooshed faces with shorter spear-shaped ears.

The second difference would be their coat. Alpacas have one coat of fine, soft hair that grows thick and fast. Llamas have two coats one soft undercoat and a coarse topcoat and they are very hard to separate. That is also why Llama fiber is used for rugs ropes and cushions and alpaca fiber is used for clothing because its lightweight and soft what is also very helpful is that it is hypo-allergenic.

The next difference is also about the hair but about the color and not the thickness. Lamas likely have a multicolored coat. Whereas an alpaca mostly just has one color of fur but they come in about 22 shades which are more than llamas.

Llamas are also taller and larger than alpacas which is why they were used for transportation, they can carry about 60kg on their back for a longer period of time. Llamas are about 120cm tall when they are adults and weigh from 90 to 158kg alpacas on the other hand just grow as tall as 90cm and weigh 45 to 68kg.

The last difference which is not that easy to spot is their personality. Alpacas are shy and more of a group animal. Lamas are very independent and sometimes used to protect herds like sheep or even alpacas. Alpacas are also sweet cuddly animals which is why they are sometimes used as pets.

I hope that at your next visit to the zoo you can now spot the differences between them two and maybe even educate your family or friends. And if you have a hard time spotting the differences you can always rely on what helped me the one who is more likely to spit on you is a llama.