This species is still used to transport heavy loads through mountain ranges along paths that are inaccessible to modern transport. Only males are loaded: one animal carries 27-45 kg per day for a distance of about 24 km. If the package is too heavy, the lama stops and sits down, no punishment will force her to tear herself, she will simply spit on the importunate driver in the face with smelly chewing gum.
The height of the adult male at the withers is approximately 120 centimeters. Neck rather thin, head small, usually high, ears high, pointed.
Female lamas are used only for reproduction: they never milk and do not load. Unlike camels, llamas do not have a hump. Despite the absence of a hump, lamas have many common features with camels: fang-shaped incisors in the upper part of the jaw, calloused pads at the bottom of forked hooves (a consequence of adaptation to rocky ground), peculiarities of chewing gum, which the animal, if it is angry, spits.
The meat of the males was eaten by the Incas, but only on special occasions, they never killed the females. During religious holidays, the male cubs were sacrificed to the gods. The supreme god Viracocha relied on the brown, the god of lightning Ilyapa – piebald (in the color of a stormy sky), and the god of the sun Inti is white. With the help of artificial insemination, it is possible to cross between a male single-horned camel and a female lama – as a result, a “kama” hybrid is produced.
