LLamas

[mojojojo]

Two questions
1)why did domesticated llamas not spread into North America (through trade etc) the way that sheep pigs donkeys etc spread through the old world
2) what would happen if they did?

 

[Dave Howery]

I'd guess the big reason is climate... pigs/sheep/etc in the old world could go from Gibralter to northern India, and not be exposed to radically different latitudes and climates. Llamas would have to go first through the tropics and then the desert and then the prairies to get to N. America, being selectively bred to handle the climate the whole way.... they are native to fairly cool mountain/savannah regions, IIRC....

 

[The Mists Of Time]

Could part of it be the llama's size, the fact that it is too small for an adult to ride it?

The llama is just the right size to use as a light to medium pack animal, but certainly too small for an adult to ride at least any real distance. The donkey or burro did well in places like Mexico, but not North of the Rio Grande in The USA.

People in The USA and in Canada tended to be more mobile and to travel longer distances. Both The US and Canada stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific a distance of some 3,000 miles. Before the age of mechanized travel, to forge those two countries out of such a vast frontier and to settle people from coast to coast meant many of them had to ride. A pack horse can carry more than a llama, and horses and oxen are needed to pull large wagons.

I think their smaller size, the fact they are too small to ride, their load capacity and wagon pulling ability compared to horses and oxen made llamas impractical in North America.

 

[ninebucks]

Two questions
1)why did domesticated llamas not spread into North America (through trade etc) the way that sheep pigs donkeys etc spread through the old world
2) what would happen if they did?

The Derien Gap. That swampy track of land is one of the most impassable tracks in the world, that and the fact that there was not anysignificant ship building technologies to sail north is the main reason why things didn't travel from the South to the North.

Although if they did somehow manage to get to the North, I'm sure we would see an agricultural revolution, and all the civilisational progress that involves.

 

[Tyr]

I'd guess the big reason is climate... pigs/sheep/etc in the old world could go from Gibralter to northern India, and not be exposed to radically different latitudes and climates. Llamas would have to go first through the tropics and then the desert and then the prairies to get to N. America, being selectively bred to handle the climate the whole way.... they are native to fairly cool mountain/savannah regions, IIRC....

Isn't that what Guns, Germs (Germans I brain farted for a sec....now that would be interesting) and Steel said?

It does seem likely. To get from the Andes to comparable lands up north they have to pass through deserts and jungle..

 

[Flocculencio]

Climate, as others have said.