Alpacas are herbivorous mammals belonging to the camelid family. Their evolution started 45 million years ago in North America, with a small animal called Protylopus petersoni, only about a foot tall. It is known that approximately 3 million years ago, a North American camelid called the hemiauchenia, similar to the llama, migrated to South America. A million years later, it is thought that the hemiauchenia evolved into the lama and vicugna, which gave rise to the development of the four species of South American camelids we have today.
Today, there are four members of the South American camelid species, including alpacas, llamas, vicunas and guanacos. Two of these species are domesticated, the llama and alpaca, while the other two are wild, the guanaco and the vicuna. All of these species are found at altitudes of 11,400 ft. to 14,500 ft. with exception of the guanaco, which is also found in zones at sea level. The temperatures at these altitudes vary from 5 degrees to 75 degrees. The llama and alpaca were domesticated approximately 6,000 years ago and the pre-Incan cultures who first domesticated them used them for food and clothing. During the Incan period, the activity of raising alpacas became more valued and therefore much more organized. In the Andes of Peru and Bolivia today, alpacas play an important economic role for rural subsistence farmers and their families, providing fiber (textiles), meat (nutrition), furs and hides (craft industry), and manure(fertilizer).
Alpacas are the most numerous of the four, totalling approximately 4 million in Peru, Bolivia and Chile. There are two breeds of alpacas, suris and huacayas. In South America, only 7% of all the alpacas are suris, making them very rare. Huacayas have short, dense, curly fiber; suris have long, straight, silky fiber which is very lustrous. Alpacas are shorn yearly yielding about 5 lbs. of fiber, but some can yield 10 or more lbs. depending on the density of the fiber and the size of the animal. There are 22 natural colors of alpaca fiber ranging from white to black, browns, fawns and grays. It is sorted and classified by fineness; the finer the fiber, the more valuable it is. Royal Baby Alpaca is less than 19 microns; Baby Alpaca is 22.5 microns; Super Fine Alpaca is 25.5 microns. The coarser fiber is classified as Huarizo, coarse, and leg fiber.
Each quality is employed to make a variety of products, including sweaters, scarves, blankets, rugs and carpets. Alpaca has a high tensile strength; it is stain resistant, water resistant, naturally hypoallergenic and naturally flame retardant. It does not accumulate charges of static electricity and it is easy to launder.
