Photos

This is a photograph of an alpaca, taken close to the ancient burial site of Sillustani which is itself near Lake Titicaca in south-east Peru.

The Andean mountains are home to the South American camelids of which there are 4 species - the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña.

The llama and alpaca have been domesticated for thousands of years, while the guanaco and vicuña are found only in the wild. The llama is the largest of the four; used as a pack-animal, it's capable of carrying up to 25kg. In some areas, such as southern Peru, it's used for meat. Also, in remote areas, llamas are sheared for their course wool, of which they yield about 4kg every 2 years.

The alpaca is generally a little smaller and is domesticated almost exclusively for its wool, which is finer than sheep's wool and the preferential wool for clothing in the highlands. An alpaca yields about 5kg of wool every 2 years.

Alpaca wool can be a variety of colours - white, brown, grey or black. The llama and alpaca can interbreed and are sometimes hard to distinguish but generally the alpaca is a little stockier with longer hair and shorter ears.

Regards,

Rich