Like the llama and the dromedary, the alpaca is a family of camelids. The alpaca is native to the Andes Mountains in South America, mainly from Peru. There he is kept as a farm animal. He weighs between 50 and 70 kilos. A newborn foal (cria) weighs about 7 kilos and is born after a gestation period of about 11.5 months. He has a height of 90 cm at the withers and a long neck, with a woolly coat or long locks. The coat comes in more than 22 recognized color varieties. In the past, the alpacas were already kept by the Incas, mainly for the particularly soft and fine wool.

What is special is that the birth usually takes place between 10 and 2 o'clock during the day and then often only when the weather is nice. An alpaca does not lick its cria dry and because they originally come from the Andes mountains where it often freezes at night, the cria needs enough time to dry up by the sun.

A frequently asked question: Do they spit? In principle, not at people, but at each other if, for example, there are chunks to divide.

How old do Alpacas live: with good human care they can live up to 20 to 25 years.

The stallion, mare and foal are also called macho, hembra and cria.