Alpacasa long haired domesticated South American mammal related to the llama
Alpaca Alpacas Alpacasa long haired domesticated South American mammal related to the llama Lama pacos the wool of the alpaca or fabric made from it Hidden in the mists of the high Andes and antiquity a mystical and almost magical little animal has journeyed over five millennia in partnership with man 1000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed the ancient ancestors of the Inca were measuring their wealth by the numbers of alpacas they owned and were enjoying the finest garments woven from the fleece of their great alpaca herds The curtain of history descended again on the alpaca and remained down until the mid 1800 s when Sir Titus Salt of London discovered the remarkable fiber of this musical camelid and began promoting its use in the finest textile mills and fashion houses of Europe Even with this limited exposure to the outside world the alpaca remained relatively unknown in the United States until 1983 when a small group of American importers began purchasing small numbers of these animals from select breeders in South America and bringing them to their farms as breeding stock Today over three million alpacas exist worldwide with 98 percent still located in Peru Bolivia and Chile The alpaca herd in the United States is estimated at 17 000 and is expected to increase gradually in the next two decades
Size: 3543px × 4974px
Photo credit: © Ivor Toms / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: alpaca, alpacas, alpacasa, american, andes, bolivia, breeding, chile, cute, domesticated, fabric, fashion, haired, herds, houses, llama, long, loveable, mammal, mills, mystical, nice, pacos, peru, related, salt, sir, south, textile, titus, white, wool
