What are Alpacas ?
Alpacas are members of the camelid family along with llamas, vicuna and guanaco. Collectively, they are known as South American Camelids (SAC's) or New World Camelids. They are related to Bactrian and Dromedary camels.
Alpacas were domesticated, from the vicuna, around 6,000 years ago by the Incas and the valuable fibre they produced became known as 'The Fibre of the Gods' and 'The Gold of the Andes'. The Inca's bred superb, very fine fleeced alpacas before the arrival of the Spanish, who slaughtered most of the alpacas in order to make way for sheep.
Today, the Andean people are dependant on the alpaca for their livelihood while careful, selective breeding around the world is working to provide a luxury fibre product of which the Incas would be proud.
Alpacas are found high in the altiplano of Peru, Chile and Boliva. At 4-5,000 metres above sea level the environment is very harsh with widely fluctuating temperatures and very poor grazing. The alpaca has become uniquely adapted to this environment, and as a result tends to thrive in the UK.