sczlogover.gif (3787 bytes)
Cites II Zoom

Guanaco.jpg (11884 bytes)

© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Jennifer Nordyke

Guanaco

Lama guanicoe

Physical Characteristics

  • These relatives of the llama have a long, thin neck, small head with long, pointed ears and a slender snout with a cleft upper lip. The wooly coat is fawn brown on top and white underneath. The coat is longest on the flanks, chest and thighs.
  • Size of average adult
    • height: 3 - 4 feet
    • weight: 220 - 264 pounds
  • Approximate life span is 28 years in captivity.

Diet

  • Wild: grasses, forbs and sometimes browse

Behavior

  • Enjoy standing and lying in mountain streams
  • Good swimmers
  • Can run at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour
  • Found in family groups of about 16 on the plains in winter and in the mountains in summer
  • Able to go long periods without water
  • Reproduction
    • breeding season: August and September
    • gestation : 342 - 368 days, females give birth every other year
    • birth weight 13 - 35 pounds, young can run immediately following birth

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: dry, open country in mountains or plains
  • Distribution: Southern Peru to eastern Argentina and Tierra del Fuego
  Click here to visit the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). Click here to visit Sedgwick County, Kansas. COPYRIGHT 2004 Sedgwick County Zoo all rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording means or otherwise without prior written permission of the photographer or author. Unless marked otherwise, materials are from the Sedgwick County Zoo. Sedgwick County Zoo is accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA).