Llamas have stomachs with three separate compartments. When they eat, the food goes down their esophagus (eh-SAH-fuh-gus) into the first compartment.
The esophagus is the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach.
The partly chewed food comes back up into their mouth as cud. Cud is food that has been partly digested. More chewing breaks down the food until it’s soft enough to fully digest. Llamas chew their cud about eight hours a day!
Cows, deer, goats, sheep, and giraffes digest their food the same way.
Behavior
Llamas are herd animals that like company. In fact, when a llama lives alone, it gets lonely and tries to connect with other animals. Sheep farmers have found that male llamas make good watchdogs.
Llamas often live in groups of twenty or more.
If there are no other llamas around, they bond with the sheep and guard them against predators like coyotes and mountain lions. Sheep farmers usually have only one llama at a time with their flocks. If they used two, the llamas would hang out together and ignore the sheep!
In Switzerland, this llama protects sheep from wolves.
Crias
Llamas live to be about twenty or thirty years old. Females don’t often mate until they are three. About a year later, they will have a baby llama, called a cria (KREE-uh).
As a mother gives birth, all the females stand guard to protect her from danger.
Crias usually nurse until they’re about six months old.
Newborn llamas weigh over twenty-five pounds. They begin to walk and nurse when they are just a few hours old.
Communication
Llamas have several ways of communicating. They often make humming or clucking sounds. A mother llama hums to her baby to let it know she is nearby. If llamas sense a predator, they warn the others with a high-pitched call or scream.
If a llama stands very straight and holds its head up high, it is on the alert for trouble. And if it folds its ears back flat, then watch out…it might start spitting!
If llamas are mad, they spit at other llamas to tell them to back off. And sometimes they aim at humans. Llamas can hit a target ten feet away. It’s a bad idea to annoy a llama. But if you do, stand back at least eleven feet! Actually, you’d better make it twelve!
Most llamas are gentle, intelligent animals that are comfortable around people. If someone overloads them, they don’t spit, kick, or bite. Instead, they lie down and simply refuse to get up.
Llama owners say it is easy to train llamas. They are fast learners, and curious. If you ever get near a llama, it might walk over to sniff your face. This is how they get to know other llamas as well.
People attach colored threads to a llama’s ears to identify it.
Because llamas are so important to them, the Aymara people of Peru and Bolivia call them their silent brothers. The ancient Incas honored these valuable animals by creating beautiful llama statues made of pure gold.
There are llama farms everywhere. If you visit one, it’s good to know how to greet a llama.
First, let the llama come up to you. Don’t be noisy or wave your hands around. Don’t sing or whistle or jump up and down. Move slowly. And don’t stare right into its eyes—the llama might feel threatened.
If the llama feels comfortable, it will sniff your face to get your scent. Otherwise, it will back away. Don’t pat its head if it stays near you. Just try softly touching it on the sides of its neck.
At least a thousand kinds of animal species live in the Andes. Many are not found anywhere else in the world. These animals live in specific habitats that are the best for them. Some prefer wet, warm areas, and others live in high deserts.
Many guanacos, for example, live in the dry plains of the central Andes. They roam the treeless land eating scrubby grasses while staying away from the rocks and cliffs of the high mountains. Foxes, skunks, and eagles also prefer this habitat.
Llamas and alpacas thrive at high altitudes. Medium-size taruca deer also prefer high altitudes. People have spotted them grazing at over 16,000 feet. When the weather gets cold, they head for lower ground.
Chinchillas also come from the high Andes. Their relatives appeared about 41 million years ago. They have thick fur to protect against the cold. In the wild, chinchillas jump from rock to rock. They can jump as high as six feet!
Today many people keep chinchillas as pets.
Another animal that exists at high altitudes is the beautiful Andean mountain cat. This small cat often lives alone in the high, dry parts of the mountains. The cats are rarely seen, and researchers know little about their habits. They are an endangered species—only about 2,500 remain. Unlike other animals of the Andes, no Andean mountain cats are living in captivity.
Most people think pink flamingos only live in wetlands and lakes where the weather is warm. Some of the most beautiful flamingos, however, live in the cool wetlands and lakes of the Andes.
Huge flocks of as many as 1,000 Andean flamingos poke around in the lakes and wetlands, looking for algae to eat. They can survive at over 11,000 feet but move to lower ground when it gets too cold.
An amazing frog as small as the tip of your thumb has been discovered in a cloud forest in Ecuador. What’s truly strange about this tiny creature is that it can change its skin from spiky to smooth in only a few minutes. This quick change helps the frogs disguise themselves when danger approaches.
Jaguars
Jaguars are the largest predators in the Andes and throughout North and South America. Only lions and tigers are bigger. Jaguars have markings that look like a leopard’s. These powerful animals can be nine feet long, including their tail, and weigh up to 300 pounds.
Jaguars are meat eaters that can take down animals weighing much more than they do. This is possible because their jaws are stronger than a lion’s! In fact, a jaguar’s jaws are so powerful that they can easily bite through the tough hide of a crocodile.
Jaguars often live near swamps and in areas with trees. They can swim across rivers and lakes. Their great swimming skills help them catch turtles and fish that they sometimes eat underwater!
Spectacled Bears
The cloud forests of Peru are home to the rare spectacled bear. These medium-size animals are the only bear in the Andes. They are very shy, so people almost never see them.
Spectacled bears have white or light tan fur on the sides of their nose and above their eyes. They got their name because they look as if they’re wearing spectacles, or eyeglasses.
The bears build platforms made of vines and branches high in the trees. They eat and sleep there most of the day. Although they sometimes eat meat, they mainly live on plants. If they get really hungry, they’ll even eat cacti.
Andean Condors
Condors are the largest flying birds in the world. They weigh about thirty-three pounds, and have a wingspan around ten feet across. Condors live at altitudes of 9,000 to 16,000 feet.
Condors can travel 120 miles a day! Because their bodies are so heavy, they save energy by soaring along with the wind currents.
Condors belong to the vulture family and eat the meat from dead animals. They can eat several pounds and then go days without any food at all. The Incas believed that these great birds were messengers from the gods.
Pumas
Puma is another name for mountain lions, or cougars. They live in both North and South America. Pumas are the fourth-largest cats in the world. They are almost eight feet from the end of their tail to the tip of their nose.
Pumas prey on large animals, like deer and livestock. Since they can run fifty miles per hour and can jump fifteen feet, they are deadly predators.
When pumas make a kill, they usually eat part of it and save the rest by dragging it under leaves or sticks. Pumas and condors often fight over the leftovers. And a lot of times the pumas lose!
Vizcachas
Vizcachas look like fat rabbits with big bushy tails. They are actually rodents, like hamsters, mice, and rats, and are closely related to chinchillas. They live in colonies and have their burrows in the rocks.
Vizcachas are social and communicate their feelings through sound. They grunt, squeal loudly, moan, and at times make noises together in a chorus. If a predator comes around, the animals make a whistling noise that sounds like a birdcall. It means “Hide!”
To hide, vizcachas can jump quickly from rock to rock. They are so fast that predators have a hard time following.
Andean Hairy Armadillos
Because this animal looks like a small knight in armor, the Spanish called it an armadillo, which means “little armored one.” An armadillo’s armor is the bony shell on its back.
In the Andes, armadillos sprout hair from beneath their shell and on their bodies and legs. They have strong, short legs. But these short legs help them run at speeds of up to thirty miles per hour!
Armadillos use their sharp front claws to dig burrows and tunnels. Some are so wide and deep that they ruin the foundations of houses.
Millions of years ago, ancient relatives of armadillos were huge—ten feet long and weighing a ton! Just think of what their burrows were like!
People have lived in the Andes for thousands of years. Early Andean people practiced their own customs, languages, and religions. Although some lived in cities, most were farmers, growing crops on the steep mountain slopes. They raised llamas and wove their wool into beautiful clothes just as many Andeans do today.
A people known as the Incas settled in the Cuzco Valley of Peru. Inca legends say their ancestors first came to the valley about 800 years ago. They made the city of Cuzco their capital.
At 11,000 feet, Cuzco is high in the mountains.
With the help of a skilled army, the Incas defeated most of the tribes in what is now Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina. They took control of the land and ruled the people who lived there.
By 1500, the Inca Empire was very powerful. From his palace in Cuzco, the Inca emperor ruled about 40,000 of his fellow Incas and up to 12 million people from other tribes.
The empire stretched over 2,500 miles and was one of the largest empires in history.
That’s about the distance between New York City and Sacramento, California!
Language
The Incas spoke a language called Quechua (KEH-chuh-wuh). Quechua became the official language of the empire, although many people in the southern part spoke Aymara.
Quechua is still one of the three main languages in South America, along with Spanish and Portuguese. More than 7 million people speak some form of the language.
Today Cuzco’s Plaza de Armas is a popular place for tourists and Peruvians to gather.
Cuzco
Mountains surround Cuzco. This was where Inca nobles, their servants, and other workers lived. During the Inca Empire, about 40,000 people lived in Cuzco.
Lima is the capital of Peru today.
Cuzco was a beautiful city with narrow streets. There were fountains, palaces, temples, and shrines. Water from two rivers filled the canals that ran through the city.
Most of Cuzco’s buildings were made of stone blocks. Many weighed several tons. In fact, there are huge stones in a fortress near Cuzco that weigh over a hundred tons!
The fortress is called Sacsayhuamán.
The buildings were strong because the Incas were very skilled stone-cutters. The stone blocks in buildings and walls fit together perfectly without cement or mortar to keep them in place. Workers built ramps to move the stones into place without any modern tools or equipment. Using only simple hand tools like stone hammers, the Incas managed to create very strong buildings that remained standing during many powerful earthquakes.
The Emperor and His Government
People believed the Sapa Inca, or emperor, had a special link to Inti, the sun god. Everyone obeyed the emperor without question. Because of his connection to the sun, the Inca nobility called themselves “children of the sun.”
Inca noblemen wore big gold ear ornaments.
The emperor had many wives, but the main one was called the Coya. She and the emperor worked closely together, building palaces and managing their estates. The Coya was in charge of special religious houses where women priests lived.
There were male and female priests.
In the main sun temple in Cuzco, specially chosen women slept in a room with a statue of the sun. They put clothes on the statue, cooked food for it, and took it out on the patio every day!
The emperor and empress were carried around on litters like this.
The emperor and his family lived in a splendid palace. They ate and drank from gold and silver plates and cups. Each new emperor built his own palace.
Inca emperors wore beautiful clothes and jewelry made of fine gold and silver. Even the women’s hats had gold trim. There are stories that the emperors wore their clothes only once and then had them burned!
Great Weavers
In Cuzco, women priests known as Mothers lived in special houses called the houses of the chosen ones. The Incas chose beautiful young girls to be trained by the Mothers. The women taught the girls how to weave and prepare food and drinks for religious ceremonies. The Mothers were such expert weavers that they were the only people allowed to make the emperor’s clothes.
This Inca poncho shows the complex patterns of the weaving.
Ceremonies and Funerals
When there was an important ceremony, the emperor sat on a great throne on a raised platform.
After an emperor or empress died, their body was mummified. At the funeral, people danced and told stories about how great they were. Afterward, the priests returned the mummy to the palace.
They burned food on special fires for the mummy to “eat.” Servants sat next to it, waving fans to keep the flies away!
When there were parades and festivals, people carried the mummy through the streets.
Managing the Empire
The emperor spent much of his time caring for the empire. In order to control his lands, he divided the empire into four areas. His closest male relatives were in charge of the different sections and reported back to the emperor.
Llama caravan on the move!
The empire was connected by more than 14,000 miles of roads and hundreds of bridges. Llama caravans often traveled the roads, carrying goods all over the empire. It wasn’t unusual to see a hundred llamas or more in a caravan!
Some ancient Inca roads still exist today.
Government officials traveled the roads as well. Because they were in service to the emperor, there were lodgings for them along the way stocked with food, water, and clothing.
Mail Delivery
When the emperor sent messages to different parts of his empire, teams of young men who were skilled runners acted as messengers. The men lived in the same shelters along the road that government workers used. Since the Incas had no writing, the runners memorized the messages.
One runner would run six to nine miles from his hut to the next and pass the message to a runner there. A team of good runners could cover 150 miles a day!
Keeping Records
Incas didn’t have a written language. Specially trained officials recorded information on quipus (KEE-pooz). These were cotton or wool cords with more colored strings attached to them. The strings were tied into knots, which acted as a kind of code that stood for numbers.
Some large quipus had over 1,000 strings!
The government used quipus to keep track of things like how many llamas and alpacas there were in an area or how many potatoes were in a warehouse.
Temple of the Sun
The most important building in Cuzco was the Temple of the Sun in the cente
r of town. The four main roads in the empire came together nearby.
Four thousand priests lived in the temple.
The walls were lined with gold and silver. The roof straw was coated with gold so it would shine brightly in the sunlight.
The temple had incredible gardens, with sculptures of flowers, insects, corn, birds, and other animals. Some stories told about gold statues of llamas in the gardens. The temple must have been an amazing sight!
This gold figurine of a llama shows how important llamas were to the Incas.
Llamas and the Andes Page 2