Andes HighlandsNo. 01 of 12Llama
the adventurer
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The return of the llamas to Chimborazo
This is a true story. More than two thousand years ago, llamas were already walking through what is now Ecuador. They lived alongside Andean families, carried their goods along mountain paths and gave them wool to keep warm.
But when the Spanish arrived, they brought cows, sheep and pigs, and little by little llamas almost disappeared from Ecuador’s páramo. The new livestock, with their hard hooves, trampled the páramo soil, that great sponge that stores the water flowing down to the cities.
Centuries later, the Indigenous communities of Chimborazo decided to bring them back. Through a project that began in 2002, they came to raise almost 3,000 llamas and alpacas in dozens of communities. Their padded feet do not harm the páramo, and with them came back the pride of an ancient tradition. Today, at the foot of the volcano, they live alongside the vicuñas, which returned to Ecuador from 1988 onward and now number in the thousands.
“With every llama that returns to the páramo, a tradition returns too.”
Told by: True story from the Chimborazo páramo
1.5–1.9 m
tall up to the head
Up to 34 kg
of cargo on its back
Soft feet
that protect the páramo’s soil and water
No altitude sickness
its blood makes great use of oxygen
Andes Highlands
It lives in the Andean páramo: a high-mountain ecosystem with cold temperatures, strong winds, intense sunshine by day and frost at night.
Fun facts
- Its ears are shaped like bananas.
- It has a three-chambered stomach to digest tough grasses.
- When it gets upset, it spits!
Andes Highlands · Amazon Rainforest