ALPACA HISTORY Hance Ranch Home
Bones and skeletons of the Camelids’ early ancestor have been found in archeological sites in Nebraska, USA, dating a few million years ago. The researchers have found that these animals traveled south into modern day Mexico, Central America and possibly as far as South America, maybe due to an Ice Age. A few hundred years later they moved back northward along the Pacific Ocean with some migrating across the land bridge of the modern day Aleutian Islands. The ones that crossed that bridge evolved into the Bactrian Camel of Asia and the Dromedary Camel of the North African area. The animals that did not cross the land bridge eventually traveled again south, and in South America, they evolved into the wild species we know today as vicuņa and guanaco.
Nearly 7000 year ago the natives of South American started domesticating the wild animals of their continent. Since modern scholars have not found or deciphered any written language, how they domesticated these animals is not known.
It is believed the animal now known as
“Alpaca” was domesticated from the “vicuņa”, the proof being similar
dental characteristics. The larger cousin,
the “Llama” was probably domesticated from the “guanaco”.
One researcher described the social
pattern of guanacos as “loosely formed groups of males and females that join to
breed”. The vicuņa male has a
“harem” of five to seven females that stay together for a lifetime, moving from
summer pastures to winter feeding grounds, with all offspring driven away at weaning time. This may explain the behavior difference we see
between Llamas and Alpacas.
The “Inca” has frequently been
credited with perfecting these wonderful animals, but many peoples living before the Inca
had finely woven cloth of super fine Alpaca fiber, as proven by the dating of the tombs
they left.
In recent years, anthropologists have
found Alpacas and Llamas in tombs outside of the extreme altitudes of the “Alti
Plano”, where most of the live animals are now located. Some have even been found in jungle areas. These recently found animals sometimes differ from
the modern animals, for instance the single coated Llamas with extremely fine fiber.
The
Spanish conquest annihilated
huge numbers of the natives and their animals and eventually drove most of the Lamas (camelids) into the very high
altitude (where survival was questionable)
taking the small amounts of arid land for the Spanish sheep, horses, cattle and other
livestock.
In the 1800s shippers of wool from the
sheep of South America started using Lama (llama & alpaca) fiber as ballast to fill
the holds of their ships.
When the ships arrived in England the Lama
fiber was usually discarded, until Sir Titus Salt became curious about this very soft,
fine material. He secured some of the fiber,
and found it to have exceptional strength for its diameter.
There was a wider range of colors than was found in sheep’s wool. It felt softer because it has less scaling (as
seen under a microscope) than the sheep wool. It
was lighter in weight, due to being partially hollow.
Unlike the sheep wool, there was no grease (lanolin) and was therefore naturally
much cleaner.
Sire Titus made adjustments to the
machinery (combs, cards, spinners and etc.) to handle this finer fiber, and soon had some
wonderful cloth. Sir Titus’ mill ran for
a number of years, allowing a few people to own and admire the clothing made from Alpaca. Unfortunately other mills refused to make changes
to handle the new fiber, and when the shippers found there was a market for this
“throw away fiber” the prices rose and Sir Titus could not generate enough
interest to keep Alpaca clothing popular.
During the 1st World War,
Alpaca was rediscovered by some unknown person who caused the creation of under-suits of
Alpaca to be worn by aviators under their leather garments.
These airmen blessed the warmth of Alpaca.
In Europe the popularity of Alpaca began
to take hold, and many English and French servicemen sought out supplies of Alpaca
garments and readily purchased them. A few US
servicemen brought home Alpaca clothing for themselves or for loved ones.
Here in the US, the clothing mills were
still reluctant to make the changes necessary to produce Alpaca yard goods. Sheep’s wool was plentiful and cheap and the
public was accustomed to it. The popularity
of Alpaca never had a chance to grow.
Meanwhile the synthetic fiber industry was
growing rapidly. Quickly becoming the fiber
of choice.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the US
citizens were becoming more aware of environmental and health issues and there followed a
“back to earth” movement. Many
folks wanted to create their own clothing by spinning, weaving or knitting and shaping and
designing “their” way. Natural
fiber clothing was in demand and the door was open for the US to discover Alpaca.
A
group of enterprising importers took a "leap of faith" in 1983 and imported from Chile about 200 huacaya
Alpacas. At that time maybe one person in
1000 knew what an Alpaca was, and the importers worked hard selling these animals.
The IRS was making it difficult for
investors to shelter income from taxes, and because Alpacas are livestock, farmers could
gain some tax advantages by owing and breeding them.
Additional imports added to the genetic base, but all the Alpacas were coming from
Chile. Then in 1993 Peru finally allowed
exportation, and 200-500 per year (both huacaya and suri) were imported. In 1996 the first Bolivian huacaya alpacas reached
the US – a small number of suris were imported earlier.
The first owners of Alpacas were very wise
in establishing a “blood registry”, i.e. each offspring is blood typed and
matched to both parents. The registry has
become “ The Alpaca Registry Incorporated” (ARI).
It not only keeps track of all alpacas, but it is also responsible for creating and
enforcing importation standards to keep the North American herd as good as it can be. In 1999 the Registry started using DNA matching.
About 99% of all Alpacas in the US are
registered.
Alpaca ownership was and still is becoming very desirable to many folks. It allows a family to become farmers on relatively small acreages, while creating a second income for them. Children can learn to appreciate the environment away from the problems of the big city life, and also learn the responsibility of caring for another living creature. Because of this popularity, a number of people tried to jump into the importation business, and in early 1995, the imports expected (*1,900) were nearly 40% of the total Alpaca population (4,000) in North America. This expected saturation was more than the few hundred breeders could absorb, and after meetings and discussions, the breeders voted to close the Registry to all imports as of December 31, 1998. The breeders have the option to re-open the imports in the future if it is found that the US needs to introduce new genetic material. ~
*The actural number screened for import in 1995 was 1,980 but 86 were rejected for not meeting the minimum standards set by ARI and it's membership. In 1996 importers screened 732 with about 226 (31%) rejected due to more stringent standards set that year.
Alpacas
registered in the USA as of December 1991
Alpacas
registered in the USA as of December 2002
Alpacas registered in the USA as of December 2003 Huacaya 40368 Suri 8679
Alpacas
registered in the USA as of December 2004
Huacaya 50542
Alpacas registered in the USA as of December 2005 Huacaya 63600 Suri 14354
Alpacas registered in the USA as of January 2009 Huacaya 96968 Suri 22106
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