Called "pacocha" in quechua, the alpaca has a small and more curved silhouette than the llama, while its forehead features a classic tuft of fiber. The alpaca cannot be differentiated by color, as it comes in a wide range of hues. It stands up to 1.50 meters (5 foot) high and weighs 7 kg (15.5 pounds) at birth, growing to a maximum weight of 64 kg. (141 pounds). The animal takes 343 days to whelp, and like the llama, the female alpaca can mate at a year old. They usually live at the Andes plateau.
The Incas domesticated the alpaca and utilized its wool before the Spanish Conquest, but subsequently the alpaca and the llama were extensively hybridized, leading to a gradual reduction of the amount of high quality alpaca wool. Exporting of alpaca wool to Europe began after Sir Titus Salt discovered a way of manufacturing alpaca cloth (1836). Breeding alpacas is a small but growing industry in the United States, Canada and other non-Andean nations.
Alpacas are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Camelidae.
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