alpacas

       Let's start by having a look at a family of llamas. Wait a minute, someone's saying something to me. I'll see what they want.

"What do you mean? Of course they're llamas.
They aren't? What are they then?
Alpacas? Oh yes, of course. I meant to say 'alpacas' really."

As I was saying, this is a family of alpacas. They are very similar to llamas so don't worry if you can't tell the difference. Even experts get confused sometimes. The main difference is that llamas are bigger than alpacas.

There's a baby in the picture. Baby llamas and alpacas are called crias. No, not criers - crias. They do cry, though. Well, it's not exactly crying, more a sort of mewing. Adults make a humming sound. Sometimes they almost seem to be talking.
 
These days you can find llamas and alpacas in many countries, but the continent they come from is South America. There, they have lived in the high Andes mountains of Peru, Bolivia and Chile for thousands of years.

The people who lived in the mountains kept llamas as pack animals. They could carry loads of food and other goods up and down the steep mountain sides. In fact, the llama was known as the "ship of the Andes".

Alpacas were kept for their fibre. We mustn't call it 'wool' because it is different from sheep's wool. Alpaca fibre is softer and stronger than sheep's wool. If you look carefully at the pictures on this page you can see that the adult alpacas have been shorn. Their fibre has been cut off to be made into things such as jumpers, blankets and scarves.

      
llamas

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