The largest of the South American camelid family, Llamas aren’t picky about who they call their crew. Highly social creatures, they have been known to adopt a group of sheep or goats as their own. For a herd of smaller animals, having a Llama in the squad is the business, since llamas make excellent guards.

They’re also very vocal creatures, and mothers often hum to communicate with their babies, called crias, who learn to recognise their mothers this way. Trace the llama’s heritage and you’ll eventually land on their wild cousin, the guanaco, from which they evolved some 5,000 years ago. Their ancestors inhabited the plains of North America and migrated south around three million years ago.