- Llama Llover
Dear Llama Llover:
The short answer is, yes, they are very closely related. According to Wikipedia, llama and vicuña are the two species of true camels. For more information on camels, llamas, and vicuñas, visit www.howstuffworks.com.
But while we’re on the subject, have you heard of Rama, the first camel-llama crossbred animal? A community member sent me this article originally published by Metro newspaper in London. Rama is the product of breeding a llama and a camel and had been the only creature of this kind since her birth in 1995. But now, thanks to better breeding techniques, there are three more camas roaming the Arabian desert. Camas are humpless and have the long fluffy coat of a llama. Their ears are half-way in length between camels and llamas, but they have the
strong, desert-ready legs of a camel. Strangest of all, camas have partially cloven feet – a compromise between the foot pad of the camels and cloven feet of the llamas.
And while we're on the subject... the breeding process was no easy feat. Only two of the females would conceive. Dr. Lulu Skidmore from Dubai's Camel Reproduction Centre also discovered it was impossible for a male llama to impregnate a female camel. “Only a llama mum and camel dad seems to work,” she said. “We had two conceptions with camel mum and llama dad but neither went to term.” But as further camas were born, the team discovered they had produced the animal they were aiming for.
Why breed camas? Camas behave well in a pack, and are strong but smaller and easier to handle than a camel. It is too early to tell what the life expectancy of the camas will be, but the team is confident they will reach a ripe old age.
