A Brief History of the Alpaca

The Alpaca is a member of the Camelid family along with its cousins the Llama, Guanaco and Vicuna. Within the Alpaca family there are two breeds; the Huacaya (wha-ky-yah) and the Suri (Sir-ee). The Huacaya is generally the larger of the two and has shorter fleece and the Suri is noted by it’s smaller stature and long pencil-lock fleece. All of these camelids are native to the Americas, primarily dwelling in the higher elevations of the “alta plano”, or high plains of Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

The Llama and Alpaca have been cherished for their cashmere-like luxurious fleece for thousands of years. The Andean Indians of South America first domesticated these animals primarily using the Llama for pack animals and the Alpaca for their fleece. The Incans were the first people to practice sophisticated husbandry techniques further refining the wonderful fleece and other desirable characteristics of the Alpaca. In Incan culture the garments made from the fleece of the Alpaca was reserved for Incan royalty and religious ceremonies.

During the early 1980’s a small group of enterprising international entrepreneurs began to export a relatively small number of the finest Alpacas available to the US, Australia, Canada and Europe. The importations that continued over the next decade formed the basis of the current US herd, now numbering some 40,000 animals, a small fraction of the South American Alpaca population.