Zoometric measures in llamas (Lama glama) of rural families in the T'olar and Pajonal natural grazing fields of the municipality Santiago de Machaca - department of La Paz

• Main Author: Tuco Cano, Eloy
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2009
• Subjects: Llamas; llama farms; Bolivia; Animal Sciences; Life Sciences
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5440; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6439&context=etd

Llamas have provided, and continue to provide, fiber, meat, skins, fertilizer and transport for the Andean people. In addition, they are part of the traditional and religious culture of the Aymara and the Quechua. Both are currently unaware of the productive qualities of llamas, especially those related to meat production, which is the principle product responsible for generating greater income for farmers. For this reason, 554 llamas were evaluated from a total of 3,693 in 2005. The llamas came from T’olar and Pajonal grasslands in the Santiago de Machaca region of La Paz, Bolivia and represented males and females from four age categories (newborn, 1-2 years, juvenile, and adult). They were evaluated with the objective of determining the zoometric measurements of llamas fed on T’olar and Pajonal grasses. Evaluations were categorized according to gender and age group, while also applying descriptive statistics of zoometric measurements of llama anatomy including the head, neck, thorax, and abdomen regions, as well as height, weight, and fur thickness. The Pv measurement for T’olar fed llamas (64.4 kg) was higher than that of the Pajonal fed llamas (59.9 kg). With respect to gender, females (67.1 kg) were larger than males (53.0 kg). Adults were the largest age group (89.7 kg), followed by juveniles (85.9 kg), 1-2 years (58.7 kg) and newborns (34.1 kg). The T’olar llamas achieved better results than the Pajonal llamas. Furthermore, females were superior to males, most likely due to the large number of females as compared to males in the llamas. Zoometric measurements increased with age, generally reaching a statistically significant margin (P<0.01) between age groups. Growth was greatest between the newborn and juvenile groups but it ultimately slowed down afterwards.