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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.

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Llama’s are much bigger than their alpaca cousins. They are bred primarily as pack animals. They have coarser fibre. They are much bigger than alpacas weighing in at up to 250kg. They are much taller standing 6 t o7 ft at the head and have more-elongated faces with funny banana shaped ears.
Llama’s give the alpacas the bad rep of spitting as they are more crankier than alpacas.
Camels are another level up of crankiness.

Llamas have two coats of fibre an outer longer coarser coat and an inner finer coat.

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Alpacas are one of the camelid species, closely related to the llama. There are four species of South American camelid – Llamas (Lama glama) and alpacas (Vicugna pacos) are domesticated and vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) and guanaco (Lama guanicoe) remain wild and are protected species. All four are found mainly in Peru in the Andes, with smaller numbers in Chile and Bolivia.

It is believed that the alpaca and the llama were domesticated from the wild species vicuna and guanaco over 6000 years ago. The alpaca was developed primarily as a fleece producing animal with meat as a secondary product.

Huacaya alpaca

The huacaya appearance is due to its fibre growing vertically out of its skin in small bundles with a tight crimped wave which makes the fleece sit vertically off the skin giving it a ‘Teddy Bear’ look. The huacaya fibre is more akin to a woollen process of manufacture.

Suri Alpaca

The suri appearance is due to its fibre growing out of the skin in bundles/locks without any crimped wave. This makes the suri locks twist and hang down along the flank of the alpaca giving it an appearance much like a Wensleydale sheep. The suri fibre at its best is akin to silk and lends itself to the worsted process of manufacture. It is seeing increasing use in men’s suiting and coats.

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