About the Breeds
Alpaca, llama, guanaco and vicuna are part of the camel (camelid) family tree. Treasured by the ancient Inca civilization, there are today about 2.5 million alpaca in the Andean Altiplano region of Peru, Chile and Bolivia. Camelids are a modified ruminant, not only eating less grass than most other animals but converting it to energy very efficiently. Unlike the true ruminant they have three compartments to their stomach not four. It is for these reasons that Camelids can survive in areas that would otherwise be unsuitable for other domesticated animals.
