Alpacas
July 6th, 2021
Adorable, intelligent and inquisitive these quirky animals are prized as the most valuable livestock animal around the world. Alpacas have been domesticated for over 6,000 years. They are of the Camelid Family, they are related to Llamas and Camels.
Alpacas & Llamas are South American ruminants that live high in the Andes. They originate mainly from Peru, Bolivia & Chile but since the mid 1980’s have spread across the globe.
There are two breeds of alpacas, the Huacaya (pronounced Wa-caya), these are the cuddly Teddy bear like alpacas we all know, their crimpy fibre grows out from their bodies, and the Suri Alpaca; their lovely silky fibre grows down from their body like dreadlocks and they look like ‘rastafarians’. Only 8% of alpacas are Suri’s.
There are no wild alpacas. The smaller wild version of an Alpaca is called a Vicuña. Vicuña’s produce one of the most valuable natural fibres in the world.
Similar to Alpacas Llamas have been domesticated for over 6000 years. The smaller wild version of a Llama is called a Guanaco
Llamas are used primarily as pack animals and are used to carry loads high up into the Andes. Llamas have two coats of fibre an outer coarse coat and an inner finer coat. These can be separated for processing but it takes a lot more work.
