para los amigos

¿Qué significado tiene la expresión "para los amigos" en esta frase?

Se ha estimado que por aquellos tiempos el guanaco (Lama guanicoe para los amigos) constituía una población de más de 500 millones de ejemplares distribuidos desde Panamá hasta Tierra del Fuego

Gracias.

En este caso decir "para los amigos" es equivalente a decir "también llamado así por aquellos que lo conocen bien". El autor apela un poco al humor, porque normalmente se usa la expresión al introducir un nombre más simple, más informal. Por ejemplo, podríamos decir:

El Dr. Juan Manuel González ("Manolo" para los amigos) nació en 1950.

El autor invierte lo que normalmente se esperaría, al presentar primero el nombre común (guanaco) y luego el nombre científico (Lama guanicoe) con la expresión "para los amigos".

I am obviously not the one who asked the question, but I'd like to thank you, Gabriel, for your very clear answer. "Para los amigos" would be "pour les intimes", in French. I suppose "also known as" would be a close yet not exact translation in English: the (sometimes humorous) statement that the nickname or alternative name mentioned is used only by very close relatives would be lost.

it would be something like "His name is Michael (or Mike as we like to call him)"

<<I suppose "also known as" would be a close yet not exact translation in English: the (sometimes humorous) statement that the nickname or alternative name mentioned is used only by very close relatives would be lost.>>

By whom? I hear or read this type of statement in English all the time, and I don't think people have trouble understanding it:

"John Smith ('Jack' to his friends) was born in 1952."

"Dunst ('Kiki' to close friends and family) has shown impressive range in a career that began with a Kix cereal commercial at age 3."

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound hostile above. I thought I was responding to a native English speaker. Let me rephrase my response to a simple: "Nope. A similar expression is used in English:"

I second Yop. That was a good and humourous answer, Gabriel

“I hear or read this type of statement in English all the time, and I don't think people have trouble understanding it”

Oh OK. These expressions seem to mirror the Spanish original much better than AKA.

AKA is simply "también conocido como". The expression "para los amigos" has a different meaning than "also known as" .

Yes, I know, and AKA is not a good translation obviously. I mentioned it only because I didn't know that proper translations existed.

"Para los amigos" introduces the name someone is known by their relatives, friends, partners... and also the informal name something is known by those who in some way are directly related to it .