Photo credit ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images
Guanacos I’ve encountered in real life haven’t always been this peaceful or cute. But the guanacos I have been seeing on the internet lately have been uber precious so I wanted to share some of these wonderful pictures with you. It is really rare to see a guanaco.
Jim transported a guanaco male once. He said the animal was a big boy, his topline came up to about Jim’s chin (and Jim’s over six feet tall). Jim thinks the guanaco must have weighed at least 500 lbs and it took three men to load him. Guanacos are much larger and wilder than the domesticated alpacas we are used to handling on our farm each day.
According to anthropologist Jane Wheeler, the domesticated llama that we know today and whose primary use is as a beast of burden (think pack animal) descended from the guanaco. Both are members of the camelid family.
Guanaco - Torres del Paine, Chile - photo by Marianne Purdie
Baby guanacos (below) are adorable. Just like all babies in the camelid family, which include baby alpacas, vicunas, and llamas.
Image by Mark Chappell
If you like this post you might also like Alpaca History.
