Alpaca Facts

• There are 6 recognised species in the camel family: vicuña, alpaca, guanaco, llama, camel and dromedary

• Huarizo is a cross between a male llama and a female alpaca. It has poor fibre and does not have the same packing power of a llama

• Chili is the term used for an alpaca whose coat characteristics include both aspects of huacaya and suri

• A male alpaca is called a “Macho”. A female alpaca is called a “Hembra” and a baby alpaca is called a “Cria”

• Only one type of alpaca but two different fleece types: Huacaya and Suri

• There are 7 levels of fineness in Huacaya fleece and only 3 in Suri!

• A cria’s fleece is unreliable to judge as the animal needs to be shorn at least twice before you can truly say it has an ideal fleece

The perfect alpaca:

• Need to breed in alpaca the “pure” breed

• Conformation
• Colour
• Fleece

• Head is the best place to look at for a perfect alpaca

• V shape around the eye
• Fleece under the chin
• Top knot fibre (the fibre in between the ears on the top of their head) should stand straight up
- • If top knot straight up and thick generally animal will be well covered in fibre
- • If top knot falls flat, fleece coverage will be weak
• Want good depth from bottom of eye to bottom of jaw—good depth of jaw for ruminating
• If has crimp behind ear/back of head and on tail and it is good, whole of fleece is good
• Measure base of ear to end of nose, all alpacas should be the same—only the fleece makes nose look longer or shorter!
• Finer fleece animals will have less fleece over face
• As alpaca gets older will “clean up” around the face—this usually starts from around 2 years old

• If you can see individual staples on fleece in neck, the whole fleece will be good. As you look at an alpaca and its fleece looks like “cauliflower” or “popcorn”, it is a good fleece.