History of Alpacas

11 Million years ago the earliest ancestors of the Camels existed in North America . About 3 million years ago some animals migrated to South America . Others migrated to Asia and eventually became the Old World Camels, the Bactrians and Dromedaries that we know today.

Alpacas, llamas, guanaco and vicuna are all members of the South American camelid (or camel) family. The Guanaco and Vicuna remain undomesticated to this day. It is believed that the Llama has evolved from the Guanaco and the Alpaca from the Vicuna. Alpacas are smaller than llamas have a very gentle disposition and have been domesticated in their native Andes for thousands of years where their fiber has always been highly valued.

The Inca empire was remarkably successful in refining the Alpaca through rigidly controlled breeding programmes and, according to archaeologists, the Inca Alpacas had a fiber quality that is not achieved now.

The invasion by the Spanish in the 16th century saw the introduction of European livestock, mainly Merino sheep, and the once highly organised Alpaca herds were decimated and those remaining pushed to the higher elevations on the altiplano of the Andes.  Here the Alpaca was forced to adapt to the sparse vegetation, the extremes of temperature and was free to breed without human selection.

In the Alpaca areas of southern Peru there remain a few large and well organised farms intent on controlled husbandry. These breeding programmes coupled with government funded research mean that selective bloodlines are beginning to appear again.

During the mid 19th century the English textile merchant Sir Titus Salt discovered the qualities of Alpaca fibre. Queen Victoria wore dresses made of alpaca cloth and did much to promote the qualities of the fibre. An alpaca coat was a 'must have' for every gentleman and many of these were passed down to later generations and are in use today. His mill and Saltaire, the model village built for his workers, is a world heritage site.

Today the Alpaca is farmed not only in South America, but also in North America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Peru ’s alpaca population numbers 3 million, with a further 300,000 in Bolivia ,and only 30,000 in Chile. The North American terrorities are estimated to have close to 60,000 animals with Australia having a similar number. In the UK current estimates are around 10,000.

In Spanish the male alpacas are called Machos, females are called Hembras, yearlings are called Tuis and babies are called Crias. In the UK we generally only use the term Cria which describe the babies. 

Pictures of Llamas and Alpacas at Machu Picchu by Jeanette Last.