- Male – macho
- Female – hembra
- Baby - cria
Alpacas are indigenous to the South American countries of Peru, Chile and Bolivia, where the climate is extreme,
with very hot summers and cold, wet winters. For centuries they have been farmed for their highly prized fleeces by the ancient
Inca people in the Altiplano region of the Andes. The fibre of an alpaca’s fleece is much finer and stronger than wool – similar to cashmere.
The Alpaca is part of the camelid family, and is a close relative of the llama, guanaco and vicuna, all of which are found in South America.
They can live for up to 25 years and stand about 39 inches at the withers, weighing approximately 100kg.
Alpacas highly intelligent, hardy animals, and are now kept in many countries for fleece production. The largest herds outside of South
America are in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom. The UK first imported alpacas for farming in 1984, as their
fleece is worth £50 per kg and each fleece weighs about 2-3kg. Alpaca fleeces are therefore much more profitable than sheep fleeces for the farmers
in the UK. Herd numbers in the UK are approaching 13,000.
There are two distinct breeds of alpaca: Huacaya and Suri. The Huacaya has a thicker fleece and looks fluffy (these are what we have at Farming
World), while the Suri’s fleece is silky and lustrous and hangs in ringlets. Unlike the llama, the alpaca has no coarse, prickly guard hairs in its fleece.
Alpacas are herbivores – they eat and digest vegetation. They are also ruminants, so they chew the cud like cattle. Primarily they live on pasture of
grass and good-quality hay.