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What’s A Lama Anyway? by Tom Wilson
What Is A Lama Anyway?
by Tom Wilson
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Willie’s Spirit Farm • Marshall NC
The Camelidae family (Camelids) are a group of six animal species that include the Bactrian (two hump) and Dromedary (one hump) camels, the so called Old World camelids. Dromedary camels are native to northern Africa and southwest Asia and Bactrian camels are native to central Asia. The New World camelids are the four species native to the Andes Mountains in South America. They include the alpacas, guanacos, llamas and vicuñas.
For those of you new to the llama [or is it lama] world you may have noticed that sometimes you see it written either way. So what’s that all about? Basically, the spelling lama has previously referred to the genus of all of the New World camelids. This included Lama pacos (alpacas), Lama guanicoe (guanacos), Lama glama (llamas) and Lama vicugna (vicuñas).
More recently, however, it seems those scientists in charge of such things have decided to change the genus of both the alpaca and vicuña to Vicugna (i.e. Vicugna pacos and Vicugna vicugna respectively). I suppose it does make some sense because it is known that both alpacas and llamas were species created through selective breeding and domestication (alpacas from vicuñas and llamas from guanacos).
None the less, in recent years, people have used the word “lama” to refer to both llamas and alpacas as a term of inclusion and political correctness. Taxonomic correctness would dictate that you just say llamas and alpacas, if that’s what you mean. However, in general when you see the word “lama” it refers to llamas and alpacas collectively.
About the author: Tom Wilson is recently retired. His hobbies include building things (from birdhouses to barns), graphic arts and blacksmithing. He and his wife Shay live in the mountains of western North Carolina with their herd of nine retired llamas, two donkeys and three cats. They have owned llamas since 1994. He is a past President of the SSLA, currently on the Board of Directors and the Editor of this publication.
The Editor would like to thank the International Camelid Institute for the use of the above image.
