Vicugna pacos

4. Alpaca Vicugna pacos French: Alpaca / German: Alpaka / Spanish: Alpaca Taxonomy. Camelus pacos Linnaeus, 1758, Peru. The Alpaca is a domesticated camelid indigenous and endemic to South America, well known for the characteristics of its fine-diameter wool: soft, silky, high luster, lightweight, and warm. Alpaca woolis used for luxurious blankets, sweaters, and cloth. The species was long classified in the genus Lama, but recent DNA studies (mtDNA sequences and nuclear microsatellite markers) have established that the Alpaca was domesticated from the Vicuna subspecies V. vicugna mensalis, showing significant genetic differentiation to warrant a change in its genus to Vicugna and its designation as a separate species. Archeological digs at the Telarmachay site in the Central Andes of Peru indicate that the Alpaca was domesticated 5500-6500 years ago by a hunter-gatherer society. These early indigenous herders selected for an animal with a docile nature while maintaining the fineness of its progenitor’s wool. No remains of Alpaca have been found to date at archeological digs in the south of Central Andes (northern Chile and north-western Argentina), but only early domesticated Llamas (Lama glama). The Alpaca has no subspecies, but two distinct breeds are recognized: the Huacaya and Suri. Distribution. Alpacas are found in the Central Andes from C Peru into mid-Bolivia and N Chile. In the 1980s—1990s Alpacas were imported into the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Europe. There are no known wild/feral populations of Alpacas. Descriptive notes. Head-body 114-150 cm,tail 18-25 cm, shoulder height 85-90 cm; weight 55-65 kg. Alpacas have long necks; relatively short, straight ears (c. 15 cm), thin and agile legs, and fluffy-appearing bodies because of their long wool. When shorn, however, the bodyis slender and Vicuna-like. There are two distinct breeds. HUACAYA ALPACA: Huacayas are the more common (¢.90%) of the two breeds. Its body, legs, and neck are covered by wool that is long, fine (27-5 microns), and wavy; the head and feet are covered by short wool. Wool grows 5-15 cm/year depending upon nutrition and decreases with age. Huacaya wool is crimped (regular and successive undulations) and similar in appearance to Corriedale sheep wool. Huacayas are bigger in size, have shorter and relatively coarser wool, and lighter fleeces than Suris. There are three general categories of wool: “Baby Alpaca” (20-23 microns some as low as 16-17 microns)is the finest and most expensive wool from recently born animals; “Tui” wool is from the first shearing at 12-18 months; and “Standard” Alpaca wool (c.24 microns) is from animals of two years of age and older. White Huacayas are the most common (c.80%), especially on large commercial Alpaca ranches, compared to 30% white animals in indigenous flocks. White wool accounts for over 80% of the total annual Alpaca wool production. Although most Alpaca wool has little cortex in its fibers,it can be easily dyed just as sheep wool, giving woollen mills greater flexibility with white Alpaca wool. Huacaya Alpaca crossed with a Vicuna produces a Paco-Vicuna, which resembles a large-bodied Vicuna and has 17-19 micron wool. Resource managers are concerned that accidently escaped Paco-Vicunas could have harmful genetic consequences on populations of pure Vicunas. SURI ALPACA: Suris arise from a very small percentage (2%) of Huacaya x Huacaya crosses, thus the origin of the breed. Because of their long-hanging wool, phenotyically Suris are quite distinct from Huacayas. Suri wool is silky (24-27 microns), straight, without crimp, generally finer, longer, more lustrous, softer to the touch, less elastic, less resistant to tension, and faster-growing compared to the Huacaya. The wool parts on the animal’s back create a mid-body line that is capable of growing up to 15 cm /year. Some individual Suris, called “wasis” by Andean herders, are not shorn for years, resulting in the fleece growing until it touches the ground; only a few such special animals are kept and are revered by the indigenous people. Around 17% of the offspring from Suri x Suri crosses produce Huacaya types. In their South American homeland, Suri Alpacas are considered to be longerlived, more delicate, less hardy, and to have lower fertility than Huacaya Alpacas. Recent research has found thatjuvenile mortality is high because of lack of wool coverage on the midline. However, when given the right management and equally good pastures, they thrivejust as well and with similar fertility as Huacayas. During lactation Suri Alpacas lose weight more than Huacayas because they produce more milk (udders are larger on Suri females). As a result, Suri young are heavier than Huacayas because they have a greater availability of milk. Body wool is uniform or multicolored; 22 natural colors have been categorized, ranging from white to black, with intermediate shades of grays, fawns, and browns. The upperlip is split for grasping forage. The eyes are large, round, and slightly forward looking. The feet have soft-padded soles and two toes, each ending with large pointed nails. Testes are small, oval-shaped and located in the perineal region under the tail. Life span is 15-20 years. The cuticle on individual wool fibers is made up of poorly developed, elongated, and flattened cells. While such rudimentary cuticle scales without ridges results in poor felting qualities, it makes the Alpaca wool extraordinarily smooth and soft to the touch. Still, Alpaca wool is 3-6 times stronger than human hair. Based upon strand diameter and morphology, the fleece (pelt) of this ungulate is made up of two types of hair: wool and hair. Similar to fine sheep wool, the medulla can be non-existent in unusually fine Alpaca wool, but has been observed in Peruvian Alpaca fibers averaging 17 microns. Such pure Alpacas are considered “one coated” because their fleece consists only of the fine undercoat hairs and lack the outer coarser guard hairs. As the proportion of medullation increases (as it does with age), wool diameter increases and fineness decreases, thatis, the proportion of the medulla progressively increases with the thickness of the individual wool strand. Woolis of the cortex type of fineness, and hair is of the medullar type with larger diameter. Hair is especially common on the chest, face, and extremities, but it is not unusual to find individual hairs intermixed throughout the fleece. This is especially common in “Huarizos,” hybrids between an Alpaca female and a Llama male. Huarizos show intermediate physical characteristics of the two parents, and relatively coarse wool (c.32 microns in diameter). Their fleeces contain as much as 40% guard hair. Huarizos are considered undesirable by the Alpaca wool industry and are being selected against on commercial Alpaca farms. Nearly all (90%) Alpacas on large farms are shorn annually and done indoors with shearing scissors or by mechanized clippers. In indigenous family herds in the Andes only half of the animals are shorn each year, and done under rustic conditions in the out-of-doors with hand shears. Shearing of males, geldings, non-pregnant and some pregnant females takes place in November and December, while new mothers with young, yearlings, and thin males and females are done in February to April. Annual shearing yields 1.5-2. 8 kg of wool per Alpaca in South America (enough to make four sweaters), and up to 3-6 kg in USA and Australia. Fineness of Alpaca fleeces vary from farm to farm in Peru (24-7-32-3 microns, averaging 28-9 microns), but in other countries where it has been introduced, 16-24 microns is more typical. In the Andes Alpaca wool increases in diameter from 17-4 microns to 27-5 microns from the first shearing at ten months to six years of age. Large Alpaca farms in Peru are able to practice better husbandry through pasture management, selective breeding, and health care. Of 3762 shorn Alpacas on one such farm in Puno, Peru, in the 1980s, wool was sorted and classified into the following five quality categories: X 3% at 19 microns, AA 52% at 25 microns, A 17% at 37 microns, LP 23% at 44 microns, and K 5% at 49 microns. Still, nearly half was considered “thick” relative to the Alpaca’s potential for producing fine wool. Now, two decadeslater, better management and selection is beginning to improve wool quality. Alpaca wool production and quality is strongly influenced by artificial selection (genetics) and nutrition. Seasonally wool production varies under the extreme conditions of the Alpaca’s high-altitude habitat: fiber or strand length has been shown to be 25% longer during the rainy season in the Andean highlands, reflecting the percentage of crude plant protein that decreases from 11% in the wet season to 3-5% in the dry season. Wool quality decreases (increase in diameter) when Alpacas are grazed on high-quality pasture compared to native range of poor to very poor quality. For example during a 15month feeding trial relative to controls, Alpacas on diets in Andean rangeland vs. managed pastures of alfalfa, increased the body weight of mothers and young 10 kg and 22 kg respectively, fleece weight 0-4 kg and 0-8 kg, staple length 2-3 cm and 1-8 cm, fiber diameter 5-2 microns and 6-9 microns, and yield 4-1% and 10-8%. In another study adult Alpacas on high-feeding regimes resulted in increased stand diameter (fine 21-22 microns to thick 27-28 microns), but wool production per head/year increased from 1-1 kg to 2-4 kg. But, because there is little commercial difference in value per kilogram in the two wool diameters, total monetary value was doubled on the higher feeding regime. Contrary to the long-time belief that Alpacas produce finer wool at higher elevations in the Andes, recent studies with controls have shown that when on the same diet wool quality was similar. Commercially, the majority of Alpaca wool is made into carded and semi-carded thread. In the textile industry it is o

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.