Suri

Llamas were domesticated in Andean South America from the guanaco and have carried loads there since before the Spanish arrived. The North American herd is a recent thing by comparison, and it is shrinking.

There were almost 145,000 llamas in the United States in 2002. By 2017 the number had dropped below 40,000.

That decline is the single most useful piece of context for anyone buying one now. It means fewer breeders, fewer shearers who know the coat, and a market where good animals and neglected ones both turn up.

Suri llamas are a small fraction of a herd that is already small, so the pool of animals, breeders and buyers is narrow.

Adults weigh 287 to 600 lb and stand 5 ft 7 in to 5 ft 11 in at the top of the head. Lifespan is 15 to 25 years, occasionally past 30, and a cria is born at 20 to 31 lb after about 350 days.

ALSA describes the Suri llama as naturally balanced and athletic, and often narrower through the front and rear than llamas of other coats.

The fiber should have natural luster and should hang and drape over the body, parting along the spine. It groups into very distinct, well defined locks, formed at the skin and carried out to the ends, and the locks should be independent, consistent in size, and consistent in the degree of wave or spiral from the neck through the body. There is no crimp and minimal loft.

Spun and knitted, Suri fiber twists into distinct strands and comes out heavy and drapey rather than lofty.

Llamas are more independent than alpacas and less tied to a herd, which is exactly why they work as guardians and as pack animals and why they are easier to keep in small numbers.

They are handled in a halter, and a llama that leads well is a different animal to own from one that does not. Halter training is the thing to ask about, not an afterthought.

They spit when displeased, usually at each other. They have nails rather than hooves.

Males reach sexual maturity at around three years.

Fiber, and showing. Suri is judged as its own wool division, and a show may offer it whatever its size.

They pack and guard like other llamas, but few people buy a Suri to do it.

Company. Another llama for preference, and failing that the stock they are guarding. A llama on its own is a llama with nothing to do.

Annual shearing, toenail clipping, teeth checks and a parasite plan.

That plan has to name meningeal worm if you are in the eastern United States. White-tailed deer carry it and are unharmed by it, snails and slugs pass it on, and in a llama it shows as uncoordinated movement, lameness, and then paralysis and blindness. Treatment is repeated high doses of anthelmintics with steroids and supportive care, it is very hard to treat, and it can fail. It can only be confirmed after death. Prevention is deer-proof fencing, clearing thick ground cover, and keeping animals off ground where snails and slugs sit.

Fencing that keeps deer out is doing two jobs at once, which is worth remembering when you cost it.

Look at the lock structure yourself. Independence, even size, and a consistent wave from neck to body are the things being judged, and no document reports them. A photograph taken at the right angle is not the same as parting the fleece with your hands.

Lustre is the other thing to see in person, because it photographs unreliably.

Accept the narrowness of the market. Rarity cuts both ways: fewer animals to choose from, and fewer buyers when you sell.

Ask whether it is halter trained and who trained it. With an animal of 300 lb or more this is not a refinement.

Ask about the coat by name. A seller who cannot tell you which wool division their llama shows in probably has not thought about the fleece, which matters whether or not you intend to use it.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.