Zorro regularly appeared along with Dr. Doolittle and Chief Sitting Bull in the Llama Life list of legendary sires. This description of Zorro appeared in Llama Life 31 in Kay Sharpnack’s retrospective.

Zorro PL was born on October 25, 1975. His sire, Poncho Via, was white with a black/grey blanket. Dam Auntie Mame was dark brown with a white ring around her neck and one of the nine females we had purchased from Harold Via. Thus, solid dark mouse/brown Zorro with a bit of white over his left eye, on his nose and chin, was all Via line. His super ears, carriage, and presence made him a standout from the beginning. Compared to Doolittle and Sitting Bull, he had medium heavy wool but the fiber was quite fine. He died November 25, 1991, after siring 178 registered get - all bred by Patterson Llamas.

Bullgate

Zorro and Chief Sitting Bull were involved in a controversy dubbed Bullgate. Between 1977 and 1983, Patterson Ranch used a “dual breeding” system where two males of differing phenotypes were placed into a herd of females. The Pattersons believed they could accurately guess the sire of the resulting cria based on a comparison of the cria with the two sires.

Under this system, Zorro and Sitting Bull shared a pasture. When blood typing technology became readily available, it was discovered that out of the first 17 offspring of Zorro that were tested, every test proved that Sitting Bull was the sire rather than Zorro, and Zorro had been listed as the sole sire in 15 of those cases. Some of those offspring had become prolific studs in their own right, such as Lopez and Huckleberry Finn.

This discovery sparked a push for blood testing across North American llama breeders. By 1990, there were still 103 crias recorded as being an offspring of Zorro based entirely on visual observations, leaving a cloud over his true biological reach.

Despite the pasture confusion, Zorro did successfully sire a significant portion of the Patterson herd, mating with over 120 females over his breeding career.