Photos: MN Zoo offering llamas unleashed (and leashed, if you want)

Jude and Jameson Larsen, 4, and their sister Amelia, 9, watch llamas roam.
Jude and Jameson Larsen, 4, and their 9-year-old sister Amelia watch llamas roam in the Minnesota Zoo's Northern Trail on Wednesday in Apple Valley. The zoo's Llama Trek exhibit opens Saturday and runs through Labor Day.
Christine T. Nguyen | MPR News

A new Minnesota Zoo exhibit highlighting native South American animals opens Saturday and runs through Labor Day weekend.

Llama Trek features 20 llamas roaming freely alongside visitors in the zoo's Northern Trail. While the exhibit is free with regular zoo admission, visitors ages 1 and older can purchase an extra ticket to walk llamas on a leash along a designated trail.

The llamas are on loan from Carlson's Llovable Llamas farm in Waconia, Minn. The exhibit also features guinea pigs roaming in an exhibit modeled after Peru's Machu Picchu and large flightless birds called rheas.

Llamas are related to camels and alpacas. The domesticated herd animals live in the Andes mountain region along the west coast of South America in the countries of Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.

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