Visitors come to the farm, point to a well rounded female alpaca and say, “Is she – um – in calf?  In foal?  What do you call it with an alpaca?”

Babies are 'crias', mother alpaca 'unpacking'. Photos supplied.

Well, we just call it ‘pregnant’.  A baby alpaca is called a cria, and is usually born after around eleven and a half month’s gestation.  When the female gives birth we use the term ‘unpacking’.  It’s a play on words – horses foal, cows calve, sheep lamb and alpacas unpack – and it describes the event nicely. 

In New Zealand there is no particular time of year for this event.  It makes very little difference when they unpack.  Most breeders agree that winter births are not desirable, although in the north of the country winters are not harsh and the cria will probably be fine. 

However, in the mountainous regions of South America where alpacas originate it makes a big difference because of harsh winter weather conditions and the seasonal availability of feed – hence the eleven and a half month gestation period and subsequent annual turnaround in birthing.

The gestation period can actually be anything from ten and a half to twelve months. It’s rare for an alpaca to exceed a year, but it does happen and many get very close.

Interestingly enough, New Zealand research has shown that autumn matings tend to result in shorter pregnancies than spring matings by around ten days.

Females are ready to mate two weeks after they unpack, and the act of mating causes them to ovulate.  The male seduces the female by orgling (you could say he’s singing her a love song!) and he keeps on orgling throughout the whole performance.  If a female is receptive she sits and allows him to mate.  If she’s not receptive she spits at him. 

The act of mating can last for more than half an hour and the male repositions himself regularly throughout this time to make sure he deposits semen in both horns of the uterus. 

Two weeks after a female has mated we do a ‘spit-off’ – if she has conceived she will spit at him, if she hasn’t she’ll be ready to mate again and will sit.  We therefore say it’s ‘sit or spit’.  Some breeders conduct several spit-offs just to be sure that the pregnancy has held.

When the female is ready to unpack she will sniff the ground to choose a good place and will often roll vigorously to help things along.  Most females birth standing up but some alternate between standing and sitting. 

The cria often lands in an undignified heap and wriggles about on the ground to right itself into the ‘kush’ position, and in so doing it rubs off the slippery protective birth membrane – so unlike other livestock, alpaca mums do not have to clean up their babies.