Blue Ghost Post: Know The Difference

While riding in the Georgia Mountains, we passed a fenced pasture with animals in it. As my friend exclaimed, "alpacas", I simultaneously shouted, "llamas." Friend then looks at me and says, you're the llama wrangler, what IS the difference? Well, I then realized that if it looks anything close to a llama, I call it a llama. But how do you easily tell them apart? Both animals are Camelids from South America. The alpaca is kept solely for its fine fiber while the llama has usable fiber but is also a very useful pack animal. If an alpaca has been sheared recently, it will look more like a llama. The alpaca is smaller than the llama (almost half the size), but if only one species is in the field, with no reference, this is not very helpful. Here's the tell-tale factor...the ears. An alpaca's ears are straight, while the llama's are curved or banana shaped. Just say to yourself, llama-banama. There you go, impress your friends...know the difference.