Duration: 0:55

246 views

5

Rumley’s Open Farm is a unique working farm experience and provides a great location for many different occasions from birthdays to school tours and an excellent day out for all the family.

Rumley’s Open Farm, situated in 20 acres was transformed in 2012 from a small shop to what it is today and is unique in the fact that it is still a working farm
The farm has a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities for children of all ages and has many domestic animals. The farm includes 2km of walkways, petting zone (check times on arrival), tractor drawn trailer rides, zip lines, robotic milking machine and much much more.

Check out our events section to view current and up and coming events.

The llama (/ˈlɑːmə/; Spanish pronunciation: [ˈʎama]) (Lama glama) is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era.

Llama
Llamas, Vernagt-Stausee, Italy.jpg
Conservation status
Domesticated
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Artiodactyla
Family:
Camelidae
Genus:
Lama
Species:
L. glama
Binomial name
Lama glama
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Lama glama Vicugna pacos range.png
Domestic llama and alpaca range[1]
Synonyms
Camelus glama Linnaeus, 1758

Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft and contains only a small amount of lanolin.[2] Llamas can learn simple tasks after a few repetitions. When using a pack, they can carry about 25 to 30% of their body weight for 8 to 13 km (5–8 miles).[3] The name llama (in the past also spelled "lama" or "glama") was adopted by European settlers from native Peruvians.[4]

The ancestors of llamas are thought to have originated from the Great Plains of North America about 40 million years ago, and subsequently migrated to South America about three million years ago during the Great American Interchange. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago), camelids were extinct in North America.[3] As of 2007, there were over seven million llamas and alpacas in South America and over 158,000 llamas and 100,000 alpacas, descended from progenitors imported late in the 20th century, in the United States and Canada.[5]

In Aymara mythology, llamas are important beings. The Heavenly Llama is said to drink water from the ocean and urinates as it rains.[6] According to Aymara eschatology, llamas will return to the water springs and lagoons where they come from at the end of time
Lamoids, or llamas (as they are more generally known as a group), consist of the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna, prev. Lama vicugna), guanaco (Lama guanicoe), Suri alpaca, and Huacaya alpaca (Vicugna pacos, prev. Lama guanicoe pacos), and the domestic llama (Lama glama). Guanacos and vicuñas live in the wild, while llamas and alpacas exist only as domesticated animals.[7] Although early writers compared llamas to sheep, their similarity to the camel was soon recognized. They were included in the genus Camelus along with alpaca in the Systema Naturae (1758) of Carl Linnaeus.[8] They were, however, separated by Georges Cuvier in 1800 under the name of lama along with the guanaco.[9] DNA analysis has confirmed that the guanaco is the wild ancestor of the llama, while the vicuña is the wild ancestor of the alpaca; the latter two were placed in the genus Vicugna.[10]

The genera Lama and Vicugna are, with the two species of true camels, the sole existing representatives of a very distinct section of the Artiodactyla or even-toed ungulates, called Tylopoda, or "bump-footed", from the peculiar bumps on the soles of their feet. The Tylopoda consist of a single family, the Camelidae, and shares the order Artiodactyla with the Suina (pigs), the Tragulina (chevrotains), the Pecora (ruminants), and the Whippomorpha (hippos and cetaceans, which belong to Artiodactyla from a cladistic, if not traditional, standpoint). The Tylopoda have more or less affinity to each of the sister taxa, standing in some respects in a middle position between them, sharing some characteristics from each, but in others showing special modifications not found in any of the other taxa.[citation needed]


A domestic llama
The 19th-century discoveries of a vast and previously unexpected extinct Paleogene fauna of North America, as interpreted by paleontologists Joseph Leidy, Edward Drinker Cope, and Othniel Charles Marsh, aided understanding of the early history of this family.[citation needed] Llamas were not always confined to South America; abundant llama-like remains were found in Pleistocene deposits in the Rocky Mountains and in Central America. Some of the fossil llamas were much larger than current forms. Some species remained in North America during the last ice ages. North American llamas are categorized as a single extinct genus, Hemiauchenia. Llama-like animals would have been a common sight 25,000 years ago, in modern-day California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Missouri