And yes I mean the animals, not the Tibetian holy men.
Seriously, since llamas are used to mountain terrain, I would imagine they’d do ok as a domestic herd animal in places like Afghanistan. Since they’re related to camels, in any place where Bactrian camels are raised you could tell the locals that they’re “little humpless camels” and you wouldn’t be far wrong. I keep imaging what if some Peace Corp program back in the 1960s had tried transplanting them.
Nno, Llumpy, Lllamas wwouldn’t ddo wwell aat aall.
You see they stutter and the Lamas of Tibet would resent the llamas of Peru.
Actually the llamas would make out OK but the ecosystem would probably get wrecked as is the case whenever you introduce foreign species. Although maybe if you removed those two hump camels and replaced them with llamas.
In this Wikipeida article about llamas, the first picture the llama looks evil, like he’s about to take over the village.
I don’t know what eats llamas, probably cougars and jaguars so I imagine tigers and other cats in Asia would be similar enough so they’d naturally fear them.
There are quite a few of them here.
The niche for a “llama” in Asia is almost certainly already taken, by the camels and other hoofed animals. Thus the llama would be pushed out by the local species, or would push out endemic species.
Generally, unless we have new land somehwere or something, just about every niche is already filled. Given enough time, that’s what happens. This is why it is almost always a bad idea to “introduce a new species”.
I don’t think the OP is asking about the enviromental consequences of introducing llamas, s/he is asking whether llamas could live in an Asiatic climate.
As a domestic herd, yeah, probably. They are raised in places as dissimilar from their native habitat as the northern continental US and Canada. And somebody provided a link to a llama farm in Israel a couple posts up. The real question would be why you would want to, with a ready supply of domestic camels - what would a llama do for the local economy that a camel couldn’t? Note that the Israel operation seems to be a specialist operation where they are raising them for the premium wool and to draw tourists. Much of the middle east is in no position to support that kind of “boutique farming” operation.
As a possible counter-example, how about camels in Australia?
Well, yes, Camels have not really damaged the environment in Aus as much as other species have. It is possible that the camel moved into a not-yet filled niche, one forerly occupied by an extinct species, such as perhaps the Diprotodon .
Like when I said “just about every niche is already filled. Given enough time, that’s what happens”, note the “given enough time”. In the case of outside influence extinction, it takes quite a bit of time for existing species to change into a new species to fill that niche.
Er, no. The reason it’s a bad idea to introduce new species is that sometimes their particular niche doesn’t function in the new environment.
Camels & llamas could share a niche. It’s when you, say, bring an enthusiastic green plant to an environment where nothing that eats it can survive (like Caulerpa taxifolia in the Mediterranean) that you have a PROBLEM. Or any lifeform brought whither its native forms of environmental resistance don’t exist (rabbits in the Pacific, kudzu in North America).
I agree with all of the above. Llamas are hardy animals and can survive a lot of conditions. There are llama breeders all over the U.S. although I don’t know what anyone does with one other than show it off at fairs. They shouldn’t have any problem with most climates in Asia. Their native climate can be pretty harsh and varied after all.
They have camels in Australia?
A large population of feral ones. Introduced for use as transport in the 19th century. Some escaped, and lived very well in the outback. They didn’t do as well in Arizona when the US army experimented with the idea.
Hikers use them to carry their packs.
Hunters use them to pack out kills from the backcountry.
Special Forces soldiers train them as snipers. Um, j/k, sorry, Special Forces learn to use them as packbeasts in difficult terrain.