Alpacas are members of the Camelid family, along with Llamas, Vicunas, Guanacos and of course Camels.  Alpacas originate mostly from Peru and Chile today, and are still being imported into the UK to improve breeding stock.  They were rarely seen outside South America before the 1980s, except in Zoos and circuses, and have only been imported into the UK in significant numbers for less than 20 years.  There are very large and profitable Alpaca industries in Norh America and Australia & New Zealand, but the UK has by far the largest Alpaca population in Europe.

Since the time of the Incas, Alpacas have been bred for their fleece, which is amongst the finest and strongest natural fibre in the world.  They do however make wonderful pets, and will guard sheep and other livestock against foxes, and they even have investment potential.  They are very intelligent, easily trained and very gentle with children.  They are initially shy but inquisitive, and will approach people who stand calmly and quietly to watch them.  They will eat from your hand (they do not bite), and once trained they can be easily led on a halter.  We halter-train all of our home-bred alpacas.

Although the animals above may look very similar, the white one is a Suri Alpaca, and the others are the more common Huacayas.  They look the same because they had just been sheared when this picture was taken. The Suri has a very different type of fleece [look at his picture in the album].  They also look quite skinny when they have just been sheared (usually mid-Summer), but rather different by the following Spring.  There are many colours of Alpacas from white through Fawn, Browns, Greys to Black, and some are multicoloured.

This is a  reasonably small herd, with a good balance of age and gender, and a good mix of colours. See the Alpaca Care section for more about looking after them, or the 'Alpacas For Sale' section to see what we have available, or contact us to find out more.