Hi, what kind of Llama or animal is this?

I was riding my bike along the Pacific Coast and on this Ranch I saw this creature. Didn't know what it was to be quite honest. It doesn't look like the typical Llama. But I don't think it looks like an alpaca either, although it it quite smaller than the typical Llama. It's fur looks much different. Is this a different type of Llama? I almost thought it was a hybrid.

It looks like it's moulting...

Vicunas are smaller but I think they're still endangered enough I don't think they have them stateside...

Deb Rebel wrote:It looks like it's moulting...

Vicunas are smaller but I think they're still endangered enough I don't think they have them stateside...

Does it look like a llama? It looks moulting, but not sure what type of Llama it is.

Could be just a young one. It has the right ears and face for llama.

If you get another chance, walk up to it and see if it spits on you.  It won't tell you what it is, but I find it hilarious when they spit on people

Looks like an older llama that's begun loosing its wool.  From what I noticed through raising 60 llamas for roughly 12 years....as they get older, their wool begins to thin and look unhealthy.

That looks like a Vicuna, they are available here in the states but not as wide spread as the Llama and Alpaca.

Julian, please fill out your location and other information by going to your control panel, it will help others here give you better answers to your questions. Thanks

Redhawk

They've now bred miniature llamas. So it looks like a miniature one to me. Vicuñas have different coloration and alpacas look different.

Might be easier if there if was something to give some an idea of scale

David

Joshua Parke wrote:Looks like an older llama that's begun loosing its wool.  From what I noticed through raising 60 llamas for roughly 12 years....as they get older, their wool begins to thin and look unhealthy.

That sounds like a nutritional deficiency or parasite problem to me.  My last llama was over 30 years old - which is really really old, and he didn't have any problems like this.  My current llama is about 15, and nothing like this with the wool.  

I did have an alpaca come to me with fibre like this, but a change of diet fixed that.  He was fed horse treats which they don't do well on.  Thanks to that, he had lost the ability to chew grasses and hay properly and we had to chop up his hay for the first two years he was here.  He's fine now and produces gorgeous fibre. He came to us at about 18 years old.



The picture at the start of the thread - definitely a llama. Not a cross.  Here's an article about the difference between an alpaca and a llama.  

A side note about the size.  Generally, llamas are larger than alpacas,  Then again, when I go to the local fall fair, I was very confused by the small alpacas.  I asked what kind are these, that they could be 1/3rd smaller than my alpacas but have llama faces?  I got told off in no uncertain terms these were llamas.  When I asked them what it's like to care for a miniature llama, they got extremely huffy and started lecturing me on the facts about llama and alpaca sizes.  That's when I realized that my animals were quite a bit larger than normal.  They are no bigger than the ones I saw in South America, but apparently, the modern bloodlines in our neck of the woods are much smaller than the old ones.  In conclusion, size is not a good indicator if an animal is an alpaca or a llama.  

Vicuñas ear and face shape is different.

This guy is all llama.

The picture looks fishy to me. Look at the positions of the legs in relation to the animal's body weight. Seems an odd way to stand. If I were taking a picture of something I'd get the whole animal in the shot, without the fence.

Vicuna are quite slim. It's hard to tell how much belly this animal has. Again because of the fence.

Nobody has mentioned guanacos yet.  But it looks like a llama to me.  I used to work on a place where there was a llama that had dreadlocks.  She was too wild to catch and shear.  This one looks a bit like that, but the photo is a bit cryptic.  We also had llama/alpaca crosses, so it does happen.

Dale Hodgins wrote:The picture looks fishy to me. Look at the positions of the legs in relation to the animal's body weight. Seems an odd way to stand. If I were taking a picture of something I'd get the whole animal in the shot, without the fence.

Vicuna are quite slim. It's hard to tell how much belly this animal has. Again because of the fence.

Well I have some more pics. But it's hard to get a clean pic of him because the ranch is kinda big and he doesn't always come close.

But his body did seem kind of weird. I really didn't know what kind of animal he was. When I first saw him I was puzzled. He doesn't look the same as other Llamas. My friend thought it was an emu bird.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:That looks like a Vicuna, they are available here in the states but not as wide spread as the Llama and Alpaca.

Julian, please fill out your location and other information by going to your control panel, it will help others here give you better answers to your questions. Thanks

Redhawk

I live in Bay Area. Anyways I actually would want a Llama that looks like this one. I like how he stands differently. He's a unique size and his fur is quite odd. My friend thought he was a bird like an emu or ostrich. I just like him because he looks different.

r ranson wrote:

Joshua Parke wrote:Looks like an older llama that's begun loosing its wool.  From what I noticed through raising 60 llamas for roughly 12 years....as they get older, their wool begins to thin and look unhealthy.

That sounds like a nutritional deficiency or parasite problem to me.  My last llama was over 30 years old - which is really really old, and he didn't have any problems like this.  My current llama is about 15, and nothing like this with the wool.

Excellent point that I overlooked. That's exactly the reason our llamas began looking raggidy...parasites. They were my grandparents llamas, and for the last four-five years we had them, they didn't get the attention they needed, they were sold to a horse vets family that has llamas, and supposedly they're all doing really well being taken care of as they need to be.

Julian Lee wrote:

Dale Hodgins wrote:The picture looks fishy to me. Look at the positions of the legs in relation to the animal's body weight. Seems an odd way to stand. If I were taking a picture of something I'd get the whole animal in the shot, without the fence.

Vicuna are quite slim. It's hard to tell how much belly this animal has. Again because of the fence.

Well I have some more pics. But it's hard to get a clean pic of him because the ranch is kinda big and he doesn't always come close.

But his body did seem kind of weird. I really didn't know what kind of animal he was. When I first saw him I was puzzled. He doesn't look the same as other Llamas. My friend thought it was an emu bird.

Thanks for the photos.

Still looks 100% llama to me.

His ears say he's paying attention to you and wants to know if you are a threat but pretty certain you aren't or if you are, he can handle you.  His face (especially the muscles under the eyes) says he's not thrilled about you being there.  His tail being lifted like that probably means he's trying to poop, and they stand like that when they are going pee.  Having one of the longest and thinnest urethrae to body mass of any mammals, it takes a long time to go pee.  With a coat like that, he probably has stones or crystals in his urine, which makes it even longer.  A healthy llama can take about a minute to empty their bladder.  I've seen some that take six minutes, but that was extreme situation.  This fella isn't in great shape, so he might also be constipated.  

It looks like he's in there with some sheep, a cow, possibly a horse?  If they are giving minerals (which is necessary to keep animals healthy) they are probably giving them sheep minerals which is low in copper - which leads to parasite issues and poor fibre.  There's no sign of shade in the photos, but it looks fairly dry area, so possibly heat is an issue.  Salt and/or water deficiency can also be a problem.  And the grass looks fairly high for that many animals, meaning that they have recently changed pastures.  All this leads to digestive issues which can make waste disposal take a good deal longer than normal.  

r ranson wrote:

Julian Lee wrote:

Dale Hodgins wrote:The picture looks fishy to me. Look at the positions of the legs in relation to the animal's body weight. Seems an odd way to stand. If I were taking a picture of something I'd get the whole animal in the shot, without the fence.

Vicuna are quite slim. It's hard to tell how much belly this animal has. Again because of the fence.

Well I have some more pics. But it's hard to get a clean pic of him because the ranch is kinda big and he doesn't always come close.

But his body did seem kind of weird. I really didn't know what kind of animal he was. When I first saw him I was puzzled. He doesn't look the same as other Llamas. My friend thought it was an emu bird.

Thanks for the photos.

Still looks 100% llama to me.

His ears say he's paying attention to you and wants to know if you are a threat but pretty certain you aren't or if you are, he can handle you.  His face (especially the muscles under the eyes) says he's not thrilled about you being there.  His tail being lifted like that probably means he's trying to poop, and they stand like that when they are going pee.  Having one of the longest and thinnest urethrae to body mass of any mammals, it takes a long time to go pee.  With a coat like that, he probably has stones or crystals in his urine, which makes it even longer.  A healthy llama can take about a minute to empty their bladder.  I've seen some that take six minutes, but that was extreme situation.  This fella isn't in great shape, so he might also be constipated.  

It looks like he's in there with some sheep, a cow, possibly a horse?  If they are giving minerals (which is necessary to keep animals healthy) they are probably giving them sheep minerals which is low in copper - which leads to parasite issues and poor fibre.  There's no sign of shade in the photos, but it looks fairly dry area, so possibly heat is an issue.  Salt and/or water deficiency can also be a problem.  And the grass looks fairly high for that many animals, meaning that they have recently changed pastures.  All this leads to digestive issues which can make waste disposal take a good deal longer than normal.  

Interesting. So you're saying the reason he looks different is because he's unhealthy? Too bad he's not happy I'm there. I really think he looks like a cute llama.

He definitely is alert. When I am riding my bike, he looks at me the whole time or when I stop his eyes are fully aware I'm there.

Yea it's a pretty dry area but we had a lot of rain during the winter. He lives close to the ocean so there's fog often.

Yea he lives with other animals. I think there might be an indoor barn that he can go into. There's 2 sides of the fence and I've seen him on both sides but usually he's on the left side away from the other animals.

Would you say he's young or old? If he's in bad shape I wish there was a way to help him, like feed him something nutritious through the fence. Since I started biking that area I see him often now but he's not always close to the fence. I like him I think he's cool.

Julian Lee. wrote:

Would you say he's young or old? If he's in bad shape I wish there was a way to help him, like feed him something nutritious through the fence. Since I started biking that area I see him often now but he's not always close to the fence. I like him I think he's cool.

Are you aquainted with the land owners? Is he new to this location? It is possible that they are already addressing his health issues, perhaps he is a rescue animal.
But I would never feed anything to an animal without the owners' express permission. With all the crazies out there, I'd view someone at my fence with extreme suspicion. Many folks with animals also possess firearms...

When our neighbors had horses, I asked permission to feed them snacks of the very same grass they were already 'stealing' from my yard. My kid sure got a kick out of that!

Would you say he's young or old? If he's in bad shape I wish there was a way to help him, like feed him something nutritious through the fence.

Please don't.  I know it's tempting, but it can do a lot more harm than good.  Llamas are really sensitive to new foodstuff.  PLEASE talk to the owners first.  It could be other people had this idea and that's what's caused the health issues.


A few years back, my old llama wasn't doing very well and was suddenly got overweight.  I found out that all the neighbours were feeding him goat and horse treats which made his teeth fall out.  So then I had a toothless llama that needed his food chopped up for him.  One neighbour bought a bale of alfalfa hay and gave it to them because he believed we were starving them.  This caused some serious health problems in our flock and some rather strong words said across the fence.  It also means that our animals can no longer go in any pasture that borders that property because he has come so close, several times, to killing my animals with his kindness.

I have one neighbour who was willing to ask me "I want to give your critters a treat, is there anything I can give them?"  I taught him what treats were helpful and how to interact with them safely.  He feeds them every day without any harm.


Another problem with people feeding livestock is that not all humans know the right body language to use.  Sometimes a llama (or in our experience a goat) will get startled by the human's behaviour and defend itself from the scary intruder.  The human gets seriously injured, the animal gets labelled as 'dangerous' and must be killed.  These animals might be rescues, they might have emotional issues (and yes, livestock do get emotional and behavioural issues), you might not know how to speak llama to make certain he doesn't blind you with vomit-spit (because that's what the spit is, stomach acid).  The farmer can teach you this and then you can have a good relationship with the llama.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

When our neighbors had horses, I asked permission to feed them snacks of the very same grass they were already 'stealing' from my yard. My kid sure got a kick out of that!

I think this is wonderful.  Well done and extra well done for showing your kids how it's done.  As a livestock guardian, this makes me very happy.

r ranson wrote:These animals might be rescues, they might have emotional issues (and yes, livestock do get emotional and behavioural issues), you might not know how to speak llama to make certain he doesn't blind you with vomit-spit (because that's what the spit is, stomach acid).  The farmer can teach you this and then you can have a good relationship with the llama.

↑↑↑↑↑This......plus if, as JD Gonzalez noted, some inbreeding for miniaturization has occurred in llamas, then the animal may be less than thrifty.  As an example, pot-bellied pigs continue to be inbred and malnourished for their "tea cup" attributes.....which tends to make them rather sickly and relatively short lived.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Julian Lee. wrote:

Would you say he's young or old? If he's in bad shape I wish there was a way to help him, like feed him something nutritious through the fence. Since I started biking that area I see him often now but he's not always close to the fence. I like him I think he's cool.

Are you aquainted with the land owners? Is he new to this location? It is possible that they are already addressing his health issues, perhaps he is a rescue animal.
But I would never feed anything to an animal without the owners' express permission. With all the crazies out there, I'd view someone at my fence with extreme suspicion. Many folks with animals also possess firearms...

When our neighbors had horses, I asked permission to feed them snacks of the very same grass they were already 'stealing' from my yard. My kid sure got a kick out of that!

You make a good point. I don't know the owner but I have seen him from a distance a few times. When I was at another ranch I saw a mother with her kids feed a llama an apple. That llama looked much bigger with more fur but he had much less space. His space was the size of a normal backyard, where as this llama has tons of space but is still small. I've thought of talking to the owner.

Do you know what type of llama this one is? If I were to ever have one I would want one that looks like it, it doesn't look so big that it would hurt you.

Talk to the owner, and express all of your concerns. Report back here. Don't leave anything out, I'd be interested in what he has to say.

It's quite possible that it's a guanaco. They're smaller than llamas and their fur is quite different. The tail is also an area of note and the picture showing the tail makes me lean towards guanaco. Llamas have shorter furrier tails usually and the guanaco has a tail more similar to a vicuña which I'm seeing there.

I'm still convinced it's a llama.  The tail is within the range from what I've seen of local llamas and the face is 100% llama.  

I'm eager to hear what the OP has to report back from their conversation with the farmer.  

This is definetly a llama although I'm not sure what type. You can tell by its large, banana shaped ears

So I was in the area again and got some more looks. From certain angles he looks like a giraffe.

Daniel Mintz wrote:It's quite possible that it's a guanaco. They're smaller than llamas and their fur is quite different. The tail is also an area of note and the picture showing the tail makes me lean towards guanaco. Llamas have shorter furrier tails usually and the guanaco has a tail more similar to a vicuña which I'm seeing there.

Wow you know, he does look like a guanaco. The body is very similar.