Camels, Guanacos, Llamas, Alpacas, and Vicunas

 

All of them are related to camels. Guanacos, vicunas, llamas, and alpacas.  But they live in South America, while camels are found in Africa and Asia.  Guanacos and vicunas are wild animals, but llamas and alpacas have been domesticated and were probably bred from guanacos. 

Guanaco 

Standing less than 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall at the shoulder, guanacos have a slender body, long legs, and a long neck. They are shorter and smaller than their camel relatives. Standing less than 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall at the shoulder, guanacos have a slender body, long legs, and a long neck. They are shorter and smaller than their camel relatives. 

Llama: 

It has a longer nose and much less fur on its face than alpaca. Llamas have a longer neck and head and ears in the shape of a banana. This also differs from the smaller alpaca. They are also less hairy. The size and bulk figure distinguish them from the sleeker and smaller vicuña and guanaco. Llamas can have a wide range of colors: brown, white, gray, and black, either solid or speckled.

 

Alpaca:

Alpacas are more reminiscent of a small llama than slimmer guanacos and vicuñas. They have straight and pointed ears. Alpacas have cute faces with a lot of furs and rounded noses. Their hair grows densely on their legs and cheeks. There is a much bigger variety of natural colors of their fur than of llamas, 22 in total, which range from white to black with various shades of brown and grey.

 

Vicuña:

Vicuñas are the smallest and most delicate of the four. They look similar to guanacos, but are more delicate and smaller and have shorter heads. Their ears are also pointed and share a similarly colored coat. It means light brown backs with white hair on the bellies, necks, and legs. Vicuña is the wild ancestor of the alpaca.

All of these animals are very shy, and as soon as you stop your car or bus to take a photo, they run away.  

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The guanaco's population, reduced by nearly 95 percent from the original number believed as much as 50 million, is now predominantly based in Patagonia.  Many farmers shoot them too as they don’t want them to eat the few grasses that they think are reserved for their sheep herds.  And instead of using dogs to herd the sheep and stop predators, they build fences everywhere …

An oft-quoted reference to wildlife from the ranch-land owners in Argentina illuminates the issue, “Todo son bichos”, translated as, “They are all insects”.  This has led to the hunting of pumas, guanaco, Darwin's rhea, Patagonian Humbolt skunk, Patagonian armadillo, in fact virtually everything that moves - cruelly producing an unbalanced, unhealthy ecosystem.

It is disheartening and shocking to see so many of the guanacos dead:  Often when they try to leap over the ranch fences, they are stuck on the barbed wires, cannot get forth or backward, and miserably die - often over hours and days.  Sometimes, even vultures pick on them while they are still alive.  In some areas, for example, when I took the bus to El Paine, I could see them from the road, hanging in different stages of life or dead still on the fence or the carcasses nearby. 

Read more here:

https://theecologist.org/2013/apr/16/fencing-plan-south-america-threatens-wildlife

https://theecologist.org/2013/feb/18/running-grassland-queen-patagonia

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