📷 Llama or Alpaca?
It seems to me that the guides and organizers of tours to South America, as well as independent travelers can often use the simple, but always fun road entertainment. Every time you see animals like llamas grazing nearby or just passing by, you need to try to guess with the whole group who it is: llamas or alpacas?
I guarantee, for people who have never seen them in their ordinary lives, it will not be so easy, and all of them will have something to discuss with the company, arguing and having fun. Of course, it will not be interesting for experienced travelers to these places, and even more so for people who live there for a long time, but for inexperienced tourists — that’s it.
Yes, I understand that now I can be ridiculed by the inhabitants of beautiful Chile and Argentina, for example, where I have been twice, but ... I still don’t really distinguish between them — although I remember the main differences in theory, but in practice ...
Here are the main differences that I know:
- the llama has long ears in shape resembling a banana, but the alpaca has small ones that look like a spearhead
- the llama has a more elongated muzzle shape, while the alpaca has a more flattened shape, moreover, it has more hair
- llamas are about twice as much as alpaca (it works well when two different animals stand side by side))
- the alpaca’s coat is very soft, while the llama’s coat is coarser (but here you need to touch both of them, it’s visually complicated difference)
However, it is not always so simple to use this chek-list, including the shape of the ears, the shape of the muzzle with a large amount of hair on it... It seems that you look — the ears are long, but not directly in the form of banana, however, they also do not resemble the short spearhead.
Or here the muzzle seems to be a long, but quite fluffy long fringe on top ... it's not clear, in general. And when after a few months you look at the photos, it’s even more difficult to understand and remember who was who — at least to me)
In general, who was who — consider and decide for yourself;) You can guess and we can discuss it)
It's better to watch the photos in high resolution.
OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo