Alpacas are practically unknown
in the United States, although, that
will soon change. Dedicated breeders in the United States
will
introduce a new livestock that originated from South America and
is
growing in numbers all over the world today. In North America alone
the population has grown to over 170,000 registered alpacas and
an
unknown amount of unregistered alpacas since 1983.
People still wonder, "What is an alpaca?" You may have seen them
yourself and have mistaken them for their cousin the llama, which are
very similar in their make-up. Here
I hope to share with you information
about the alpaca, to equip you with the knowledge you may need in the
future when you may run across these gorgeous animals and their
caretakers.
Alpacas are descendants of the Camel-lid family. Stenomylus
Hitchcocki, called the giraffe-camel lived some 30-40 million years
ago. Herds of these small graceful camels roamed North America during
the Miocene epoch. Unlike modern camels, they did not have humps.
These camels later migrated to South America
evolving into Guanacos,
Llamas, Vicuna,
and Alpacas.