Lama (genus)

Llamas (Lama glama )

• Guanaco (Lama guanicoe )
• Llama (Lama glama )
• Alpaca (Lama pacos)

The llama (Lama ) are a mammalian species, which together with the vicuna, the group of Neuweltkamele within the camel family ( Camelidae ). Lamas occur naturally only in South America.

Neuweltkamele vary in appearance from the Altweltkamelen by the absence of a hump and the smaller size. The animals of the genus Lama reach a head -body length from 120 to 220 centimeters and a weight of 55 up to 150 kilograms.

Traditionally, the genus of the Lamas is divided into two types:

• Guanaco (Lama guanicoe )
• Llama (Lama glama )

The guanaco in this case represents the only wildlife species of this genus, while the llama and the alpaca are domesticated forms whose attitude and breeding began already 4000 to 5000 years ago. Previously presented the alpaca represents a separate species, but this is no longer the case, as DNA studies showed that it does not derive from the llama, but the vicuna. Since the four types of Neuweltkamele are fully interbreed with each other and the lines have merged again and again, the exact lineage relationships can doubt difficult to fathom. The two domesticated forms are often counted as a separate species, but what if one applies to the modern concept of species, can hardly hold. Accordingly, more recent classifications combine all three representatives together to a single species.