Breeds » Alpacas and Llamas Keeping cute, gentle alpacas By Cilla Taylor, Wild Palette Suri Monday, 24 May 2010 What’s the difference between an alpaca and a llama? Alpacas have just one baby (cria) each year. Photos supplied. Llamas are much bigger than alpacas, they have been bred as pack animals whereas alpacas have been bred for their fleece.  Because of this, alpacas tend to have a softer, more luxurious fleece, whereas llamas will often have a coarser, harsher fleece.  The ear shape is also noticeably different - llamas have long banana shaped ears and alpacas have shorter spear shaped ears.  How many babies do they have each year? One.  The average gestation period is 11 and a half months, and they mate again after a couple of weeks, so having a baby (known as a cria) is at best an annual event.  Twins are extremely rare and usually don’t survive. How long do they live for? We think around 20 years on average, but as they haven’t been farmed outside South America for much more than that we don’t have a lot of data to go on.  In the late 1980’s the first alpacas were imported into New Zealand from Chile, they mostly came from peasant farms and were of uncertain age. The oldest known alpaca in New Zealand died at 29, she was imported from a zoo in England so had a recorded birth date. Do they spit? Yes.  They are camelids and like other camels they do spit, but rarely at humans.  They spit at each other if they get into an argument, or if another alpaca gets too close and interferes with their personal space.  A pregnant female will spit at a male who propositions her, a female with a new cria may spit gently at other crias to keep them away from the udder.  Spitting can be anything from a warning mouthful of air, through to a salvo of putrid green slime - which is really the regurgitated contents of the stomach.  When this sort of spitting is going on, it pays to keep out of the crossfire! What sounds do they make? They hum.  As humans have different voices, so too do alpacas with their hums varying from animal to animal.  Like children, young ones have higher pitched voices.  The tone of the hum varies depending on the message – the “I’m fed up with waiting in this pen” hum is quite different from the frantic “I’ve lost my baby” hum, which in turn is different from the “Aha, there you are, thank goodness I’ve found you” hum.  If they see danger they sound the alarm call, which is a rapidly repeated high pitched shriek.  When mating, or seducing a female, a male “orgles” – you could say he’s singing her a love song. Do they all have names? Yes, in most herds they are all named.  Most breeders are members of the Alpaca Association of New Zealand which maintains a register of alpacas and the names, birthdates and parentage are recorded in the register.  The registered name also has a prefix, which is the herd name, so “Pascoe” in our herd is registered as Wild Palette Pascoe. How long does it take you to groom them? We don’t groom them!  People often ask this question at a show when they see all the beautifully presented alpacas going into the ring.  They may look as if they’ve been groomed, but they are shown in “paddock condition”.  Before they go into the show ring we try to pull the straw and other vegetation or contaminants out of the fleece, but that’s it.  They are not washed or brushed or combed.  In a show the judge looks at the alpaca’s fleece characteristics – fineness, density, handle, lustre and coverage - and also crimp definition (in huacayas) or lock structure (in suris).  The crimp definition and the lock structure would be ruined if combs or brushes were dragged through the fleece. Will they bite me? No, they’re not likely to bite.  If you’re hand feeding them they pick the food up gently with their lips.  Occasionally they may mistake the tip of your finger for a similarly shaped pellet and try to bite it, but as their front teeth consist of a bottom row only, with a gum at the top, they really can’t do the finger much harm. What sort of fencing is required? Ordinary fencing is fine, deer fencing is not necessary.  If it will hold sheep, it will hold alpacas - alpacas don’t challenge fences. How many alpacas could I fit onto two acres? That rather depends on whether they are males who need only to maintain body weight, or females who are pregnant and also feeding cria.  It also depends on the quality and volume of your grass, and how much supplementary feed you give them.  You can probably run 4 to 5 females to the acre, and perhaps twice as many males. How often do you shear them? Once a year, in spring or early summer. What do you do with the fleece? It can be spun and then knitted, crocheted or woven and it can be felted.  Compared with sheep’s wool  alpaca fibre is very warm, lightweight and prickle free.  White fleece can be dyed to any colour.  Black fleece however is a true blue-black which doesn’t fade, so black fleece can produce a stunning black yarn which is free from chemical dyes.