Discover Alpacas: Facts About the Alpaca

Alpaca facts at a glance

Our alpaca guides

• Llama vs alpaca: 7 key differencesSize, ears, fleece, temperament and the wild ancestors of both.
• Alpaca wool: is it itchy?Micron grades, alpaca vs merino and cashmere, and how to wash it.
• Baby alpacas (crias)Pregnancy, birth, the first 24 hours and weaning.
• Alpaca and llama care guideFeeding, shelter, heat stress, meningeal worm and a care calendar.
• Who buys alpacas?The families, retirees and spinners who raise them.
• The financial side of alpacasWhat to weigh before you start a herd.
• Transporting alpacasHealth papers and state rules for moving animals.
• Alpaca farms in the SoutheastBreeders and farms you can contact or visit.

Where alpacas come from

Alpacas were domesticated thousands of years ago by Andean peoples from the vicuña, a small wild camelid that still lives on the high plateaus. Their native home is the cold, high grassland of the central Andes, from Peru through Bolivia to northern Chile. Peru remains the heart of the alpaca world: according to its Ministry of Agriculture, the country has about 87% of all the alpacas on Earth, most of them in the southern highlands around Puno and Cusco, where herding families depend on their fleece.

An alpaca is not a sheep and not a small llama. It belongs to the camel family, along with the llama and the wild guanaco and vicuña. Genetic research in 2001 showed that the alpaca descends from the vicuña, while the llama descends from the guanaco. See how the four compare in our llama vs alpaca guide.

Alpacas in the US and the Southeast

Alpacas came to North America mostly between 1983 and 1998, imported from South America with some of the best bloodlines in the world. US alpacas are registered with the Alpaca Owners Association (AOA), and parentage is confirmed by DNA, so breeders can trace every animal's pedigree.

The AOA registry lists more than 260,000 alpacas in the United States. About 36,000 of them are in the nine states of our region:

Source: Alpaca Owners Association registry statistics, retrieved October 2026. Registry totals count registered animals and may include alpacas that are no longer living.

Alpacas handle the Southeast well as long as they are shorn every spring and have shade, airflow and water through the summer. To meet them in person, find a farm in our directory of Southeast alpaca farms or come to an alpaca show.

What alpacas eat

Alpacas are grazers. On a farm they eat pasture grass and grass hay, with a small amount of grain or pellets and a mineral mix made for camelids. Like their relatives, they chew cud and have no upper front teeth: they tear grass between their lower teeth and a hard dental pad, which is gentle on pasture. They also drink plenty of water, especially in summer.

One habit owners love: a herd chooses a few communal dung piles and uses only those, which keeps the rest of the pasture clean and makes chores easy.

Behavior and sounds

Alpacas are strongly social and must never be kept alone. A herd has a clear pecking order, and the animals keep track of each other all day. Their most common sound is a soft hum, which they use in many situations, most often when they are curious or uneasy. Mothers cluck to their crias, and when danger appears the whole herd hears a sharp, high alarm call. Alpacas can spit, but almost always at each other, usually over food.

Watch a herd at dusk and you may see them pronk: bouncing across the pasture on stiff legs, kicking up their heels at the end of the day. It is one of the reasons people fall for these animals.

Fleece and shearing

The alpaca's fleece is the reason it exists as a domestic animal. It comes in 22 recognized natural colors, is low in lanolin and, at its best, is as fine as merino wool. Each alpaca is shorn once a year, in spring, giving about 6 to 9 pounds of fiber, and is far more comfortable for it in a hot Southern summer. Read more in our complete guide to alpaca wool.

Explore alpaca shearing and fleece care for preparation and aftercare.

Lifespan and health

Well-cared-for alpacas usually live 15 to 25 years. They are hardy animals, but they hide illness well, so good owners learn what normal looks like: eating, chewing cud, staying with the herd. Routine care includes shearing, toenail trimming, vaccinations and parasite control planned with a vet who knows camelids. Females have one cria at a time after a pregnancy of about 11½ months; read more about baby alpacas.

Quick answers

Sources

• Alpaca Owners Association: Alpacas in the US (registry statistics)
• Andina: Peru has the world's largest population of alpacas (Ministry of Agriculture data)
• Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan: Alpaca
• Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Fact Sheet FS917: Llama and alpaca production
• Merck Veterinary Manual: Comparison of llamas and alpacas
• Kadwell M. et al. (2001). Genetic analysis reveals the wild ancestors of the llama and the alpaca