Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Storey's Guide to Raising Llamas by Gale Birutta.

Storey's Guide to Raising Llamas by Gale Birutta.  Paperback book published by Storey Books 1997, 323 pages with some black and white photographs and illustrations.


I've been pondering that age old question that we all ponder about at some point in our lives.  Is a Llama the same as an Alpaca?  This is not something that concerns me that oft, but I now have a book about one of them and I need to know what’s what and who’s who in the Llama world.  I don’t really “need” to know, but it’s just a good thing to know if your trying to sell a book about Llamas, whether a Llama is the same as an Alpaca. How embarrassing would it be if someone asked for a book about Alpacas and you pulled out your shelf full of Llama books… (?)

Over the years, I haven’t been that fussed when I have been corrected about my obvious lack of knowledge in this matter.  I’ve always referred to any woolly animal that looks sheep like with a long neck, as a Llama.   According to our good friends at Wikipedia an Alpaca “resembles a small llama” and along with Camels and a few other even-toed ungulates, they all belong to the family Camelidae, but most importantly, the Llama is not an Alpaca.  Well that sorts me out in the Llama/Alpaca identification saga.  If it’s small it’s an Alpaca unless of course it’s a young Llama and then…

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