In winter it gets hot just talking about it, about Alpaca wool but this time we want to know the animal from which it is obtained, an animal that is also raised in Italy and that has several characteristics in common with the llama but that knows how to distinguish itself.
Alpaca: Origins
This animal comes to us from South America , in particular from the Andean areas of Peru and Bolivia, it belongs to the Camelidae family just like the Llama, the Guanaco and the Vicuna , all coming from similar areas. The alpaca is a ruminant and you only need to look at it for a little while to understand it. It has a body structure that seems designed to face climbs and rocky paths, in fact under its hooves it has soft pads perfect for keeping balance on stony terrain.
It has a very calm character, it is docile and affectionate, not very expansive but if it is not afraid, it is curious. It has been bred for thousands of years in its countries of origin, the Incas began to do so after they noticed their fur, very useful for low temperatures being strong, warm and resistant. With the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors around 1500 it was almost extinct but in the mid 1800s it became widespread again, thanks above all to the value of its wool, increasingly appreciated so much so that it also arrived in Europe and with it also the animals themselves, today attached in Switzerland, England and Germany, as well as in Italy.
Alpaca: characteristics
They look very nice, you can see that they are cousins of camels even if they are clearly not identical and are equipped for the climate in which they live. They can be mistaken for llamas, guanacos and vicuñas but they are smaller than llamas and guanacos and larger than vicuñas. There are two different types of alpacas that we will get to know more intimately later, for now let’s just say that there is the alpaca suri, very rare and from which it is possible to obtain a long, fine and dreadlock-type fiber, and then there is the alpaca huacaya, the most common and economical, with a thick and dense fiber, very similar to a furry teddy bear.
The average lifespan of 15 – 25 years is the average, can weigh from 100 to 175 pounds and measure 80-90 cm at the withers. Compared to the llama it is about a third, in terms of size. The coat, the part of the body on which everyone’s attention falls, can be of eight colors: natural basic white, natural light fawn, natural fawn, natural light gray, natural gray, natural pink gray, natural dark brown and black.
Alpacas: babies
Alpaca babies are born after a very long gestation period that lasts almost a year, or 335 days. The female can become pregnant without waiting for a cycle and her babies are born weighing about 15 – 17 kilos.
Alpacas: farms in Italy
In Italy there are several farms even if we do not have a climate similar to the one in which these animals are used to living. There is one in Trentino Alto Adige , for example, called “de Oro”, which is the oldest and largest in all of Italy and keeps over 200 animals of various genetic characteristics. It is a true heritage of biodiversity. It hosts 43 stallions and 91 mares that come from different strains and that give birth to about 55 foals every year.