Will llamas walk through water?

In July of 2000 a group of us went hiking with our llamas in the lower Chilcotin area west of the town of Lillooet in south-western British Columbia. We rendezvoused and left our vehicles at a farm just north of Tyaughton Lake. On the way we had to cross Taylor Creek where the bridge had collapsed and we could manage to cross it, but the llamas had to go through the water.

We tied three llamas in a string with an experienced one in front and then guided them across with a rope. T-beau has been through water many times and is leading here.

This is Pizarro’s first time in anything but a fairly shallow stream. Later, on the return trip he went through the creek by himself without even a lead rope.

Chimborazo is a youngster and had only been on a couple of short hikes before this trip and he followed willingly no matter where he was asked to go. Obviously he didn’t want to stay in the creek any longer than he had to though.

This is typical scenery in the Taylor Basin, unfortunately it was quite cloudy while we were there, but it was clear and hot on both the trip in and the trip out.

One day in camp I noticed that we seemed to have a camel with us. (Some people have said it looks like a giant snail.) I would think however, that this is definite proof that llamas are related to camels.

This view is looking over the Taylor Basin. On the left is the valley we had hiked up. Our camp is way down in the trees in the small open spot on the right hand side of the picture.

Pizarro always looks elegant when he jumps. Small creeks such as this one are no challenge now to any of the llamas that went on this trip.

Heading home back down the valley.

Crossing the creek on the way back, Shandy stopped in mid stream, pulling the packs off of Hurricane who was in front of him. After the packs were retrieved, Bill and Derry did some training with their llamas taking them back and forth through the creek half a dozen times. You can see the broken bridge in the background.

Brian and Jane Pinkerton
29343 Galahad Crescent
Mount Lehman
British Columbia
Canada V4X 2E4

Phone: 604-856-3196
E-mail address: brianp@smartt.com