alpaca facts

Alpacas are native to the mountains of Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, but many of them have recently made Australia, Europe, and North America their home. For hundreds of years it was illegal to export alpacas from South America, but in the 1980's the restrictions were lifted and the first alpaca farms were established outside of South America.

Alpacas look similar to llamas but are slightly smaller. Both llamas and alpacas have been domesticated for over 5,000 years; however, llamas have been bred predominately as pack and guard animals and alpacas have been bred for fiber. Alpaca fiber is very valuable, incredibly fine and soft, and comes in many natural colors.

Because the industry in the US is fairly young, there are fewer than 200,000 registered alpacas. That rarity combined with the unique qualities of alpaca fiber and their wonderful dispositions, translates into great personal and financial rewards for breeding these amazing animals. We encourage you to read the following articles if you are interested in learning more about alpacas.

further reading

To learn more, visit alpacainfo.com