Similarities between Alpacas & Llamas

Alpacas:

Size - Alpacas weigh in between 100 to 175 lbs., and stand 34 to 36 inches.

Personality – Alpacas are very gentle, shy and are more comfortable as herd animals. Alpacas are much gentler & just spit as their last resort when they’re angry or scared. 
Hair – Alpacas have a soft, fine coat of hair, and has with one coat of soft hair. An alpaca fiber is thicker and more dense, and grows faster than a llama’s hair.

Face – Alpacas’ faces appear to be mushed in.

Ears – Alpaca ears have short spear-shaped ears.

Colors – Alpacas have 22 naturally occurring coat colors ranging from white, black, roan, brown, pinto, fawn, gray, red and rose. When an alpaca’s coat is multicolored, it is known to be “fancy”.

 

Llamas:

Size – Llamas tend to grow taller and larger than the average alpaca. Llamas range between 200 to 350 lbs., and stand about 42 to 46 inches
Personality – Llamas are very confident, brave animals, and are solitary animals. Llamas are known for spitting quickly when they feel threatened.

Hair – Llama hair tends to be coarser and have two coats, a soft undercoat and a coarse overcoat that’s difficult to separate from one another.

Face – Llamas have a longer face.

Ears – Llamas have much longer, banana-shaped ears.

Colors – Llamas come in various shades of a wide range of solid colors and spotted patterns including white, black, gray, beige, brown and red.

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Do Alpacas & Llamas Spit?

Yes.  A female uses this behavior to tell a male she's not interested in his advances, and both genders use it to keep competitors away from food. Spitting is also used to warn an aggressor away (human or animal).

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Some alpacas & llamas are just crabbier than others & spit with little provocation. However, most of them usually give fair warning before unloading the full arsenal.  "They'll raise their chin & flatten their ears back.  They may first threaten this way,"  "Then if the animal they're directing the behavior at doesn't pick up on it, they will first blow out some air and saliva. And it makes a little pfffffpth noise."

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If the offending party doesn't get the hint and back off, the alpaca or llama will regurgitate its stomach contents and spit it up to 10+-feet away. The animals' moment of victory is brief, however, because the gastric goo isn't pleasant for them, either.

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Do they like hugs?

For the most part, no. Hugging is not natural behavior to an alpaca and to them it is actually quite scary!

 

How do alpacas show affection?

Affection can be shown by nuzzling your hand, running towards you when you walk over to the alpaca pen, or even when the alpaca actually kisses you. It depends on the alpaca how they want to show affection. In addition to physical behaviors, alpacas can express behavior through sounds.

 

Are alpacas intelligent?

Yes, they are amazingly alert animals who quickly learn to halter and lead. They constantly communicate with each other through body posture, tail and ear movements, and a variety of sounds. The sound heard most often is a soft humming, a mild expression befitting a gentle animal.

 

How do alpacas kiss?

In the context of Alpaca Kisses 'kisses' we are referring to the natural habit that alpacas have of presenting their noses to each other and to new human friends.

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