Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

Food

• Largest herbivore in arid areas of South America
  
• Eats grasses, herbs, and leaves
  
• Opportunistic, generalist diet
  
• Observed feeding on lichens and cactus

Water

• Drink from streams and ponds
• Infrequent during the day

Foraging

• Prefer to forage on herbaceous plants.
• During winter, feed on shrubs and trees.

Adaptations for digestion

• Digestive system adapted to low-quality forage, like other camelids
  
• Retain food in pseudo-rumen
• Although not classified as “ruminants,” they are “functional ruminants."
• Regurgitation, rechewing and reswallowing is part of digestive process.
• Compartments 1 and 2 or the 3 part stomach are anaerobic fermentation chambers.
• Dentition similar to sheep and goats – incisors shear off plants.
• Lips are unique – upper lip is split – each half operates independently to draw in food.
  
  

Gonzalez, et al (2006)
Fowler (1998)