Llama
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Llama
Mammal
A domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures.
💡 Fun Facts
- They are very social animals and live with others as a herd.
- They have excellent hearing and will 'hum' to communicate with each other.
- When angry or threatened, a llama might spit to defend itself!
Name Story
Lama glama
means “the llama — the Latin name simply keeps the animal's own Andean name”
likely meaningLinnaeus latinised the local Andean name the Spanish had adopted; the exact native source word is not firmly pinned down, so we mark the word-origin as likely, while the binomial Lama glama itself is the long-settled scientific name.
What does its name mean?
- Lama — 'llama', a Latinised form of the Spanish name, itself taken from a native Andean wordLatin, from Spanish via Quechua
- glama — 'llama' again — a Latinisation of the local name for the animalLatin, from Quechua
The scientific name *Lama glama* holds no hidden Latin meaning — both words simply preserve the llama's own Andean name, latinised by Linnaeus from the name the Spanish had adopted.