About Peru

Metro (Thursday August 17th 2006)
Meet the alpaca, a visitor making itself at home in Britain

Hay, good lookin’

Ok, we admit it- she’s not a traditional Page 3 stunner but at least Pia the alpaca does not want to bring about world peace.
And, despite living in an image- obsessed society, the orthodontically challenged animal is doing rather well- as are many of her friends.

Alpacas are replacing sheep in fields up and down the country and are becoming one of our most successful immigrant species.
The South American animals, which are more usually found in the mountains of Peru, count both llamas and camels as relatives.
There are about 20,000 in Britain and their numbers are growing at a rate of about 20 per cent each year.

Peter Watson, one of 300 alpaca breeders in the country, keeps about 35 of the animals on his farm in Devon. He says they are very easy to look after.
‘They are used to surviving in the harsh conditions of the Andes, so here there is virtually nothing you have to do,’ he said.
‘Apart from breeding- which they have to do naturally- they are easier than any other farm animal.’
Their soft fleece comes in 22 natural colours and is more luxurious that sheep’s wool.
And they offer quantity as well as quality, producing more than ten tonnes of fibre per year, making them Britain’s largest indigenous producer of natural luxury fibre.
Alpacas cost from about £500 but a quality breeding female could set you back £8,000.
Perhaps best of all, they don’t have an annoying baa like sheep- they produce an inquisitive hum instead.

From Peru to Yorkshire

• Until 20 years ago, nearly all the worlds alpacas lived in Peru.
• Some 90 per cent of the creatures still live there
• Alpacas are thought to have been created about 7,000 years ago as the result of cross- breeding between llamas and vicuñas
• Their wool is so soft it was once worn only by Inca kings and queens
• Alpacas were almost driven to extinction by Spanish conquistadors, who killed them because they competed with their sheep
• Britain’s first Alpaca wool factory opened in 1853 in Saltaire, Yorkshire.

OLN (November 11th 2005)
Peru in Wine Niche Hope

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