AP – A bucktoothed llama that spends his days comforting chronically ill children at a North Carolina camp founded by NASCAR royalty has been crowned the world’s oldest llama in captivity.
At 27 years and more than 250 days, the selfie- and snuggle-loving llama called Whitetop dethroned Dalai Llama, the Guinness World Records announced last week. Dalai lived on a ranch in Albuquerque and was announced as the oldest in 2023 shortly after his 27th birthday.
Whitetop was donated to the Victory Junction camp in 2006. He has become known for his relaxed, sweet and empathetic personality. His go-to move is to lie still while campers pet him, which can comfort children and give them important sensory input, said the camp’s barn director Billie Davis.
“He really gets to help campers come out of their shell when they interact with him,” she said. “He can be kind of intimidating at first, but once they come over to him and love on him and pet on him, they just realise how sweet he is.”
