The Beginnings - the ancestors of the Alpaca
Alpacas are part of the Camelidae family. The family of Camelids appeared in North America some 35 million years ago. Camelids began migrating across the land bridge from North America to Asia some 2.5 to 3 million years ago. These eventually became the one humped (Dromedary) camel of Africa and the two humped (Bactrian) camel of Asia that we know today. They became extinct in North America some 12 thousand years ago.
Camelids migrated through Panama, and eventually became the wild Guanaco and Vicuna, the only two surviving types in the Americas. The Guanaco is the wild ancestor of the Llama and the Vicuna is the wild ancestor of the Alpaca. These are prey species and have evolved to be able to run at very fast speeds.
When the Spanish arrived in South America some 470 years ago they destroyed the Inca empire and also destroyed the vast herds of prized domesticated Alpacas. The Spanish were only interested in gold and silver and thought the Alpaca was worthless to them. They were slaughtered in their millions, the escaping pastoralists moved all the remnants of their herds up into the high Altiplano (high plateau) to survive. The high quality of the herds were destroyed and to this day have not recovered, which is why everyone breeding these wonderful animals across the world are striving together to build up the finest fibre and herds possible.
Inca husbandry practices were also intertwined with their religious beliefs, it was the Spanish who condemned these beliefs, which inadvertently brought to an end all the practices that had maintained Alpacas and llamas.
Alpaca fibre was re-discovered in the West in 1860 by Sir Titus Salt. He noticed sheep's fleeces arriving from Peru at the docks in sacks made of a superb material of such an impressive sheen and feel to it...........Want to read more history?