Llama

It shows a llama, and it usually just means the animal or a bit of silliness. Llamas have a face that looks permanently unimpressed, which is most of their comic appeal. People post 🦙 next to photos of the real thing at a farm or petting zoo, in travel updates from Peru, Bolivia or Chile, and in anything about knitting, scarves and soft alpaca wool.

The other big use is wordplay. English has a small family of llama puns: "no prob-llama" for "no problem", "drama llama" for a person who stirs up drama, and "save the drama for your llama". A 🦙 after a joke or a mildly chaotic story is usually one of these, spelled with a picture.

What is a llama, and why does it matter in the Andes?

A llama is a domesticated South American camelid, bred as a pack animal for thousands of years. It is a cousin of the camel without a hump, tamed in the high Andes from the wild guanaco. Before Europeans arrived, the llama was the only large pack animal in the Americas: the Inca and earlier Andean peoples carried goods over mountain roads on llama caravans, and used the animals for meat, coarse wool, leather and dung for fuel. Llamas are still kept across Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina, and they are now farmed as pets, guard animals and fibre producers in Europe, North America and Australia too.

The alpaca is its smaller relative, bred mainly for a fine, warm fleece that goes into sweaters, scarves and blankets; Peru produces most of the world's alpaca fibre. Telling them apart in a photo: a llama is bigger, with a longer face and tall, curved "banana" ears; an alpaca has a short, squashed-looking face, straight ears and a fluffier coat. Two wild cousins complete the family: the guanaco and the vicuña, whose fibre is among the most expensive in the world.

What does it mean when someone sends you 🦙?

Almost always a friendly, playful gesture, not a coded message. Sent on its own after your message, 🦙 is a laugh, an "aww" or a shrug with a woolly face. With travel talk it means the Andes; with yarn and craft talk it means alpaca wool. If it comes with the word "drama", you are being teased for making a fuss, gently. Nobody uses 🦙 as an insult or a secret signal, so if the context gives you nothing, the safe reading is "cute animal, light mood".