Alpaca beauty contest

This morning I walked out of my tent to the sight of a herd of white alpaca yearlings being corralled, tame as lambs I may add, from the high pasture by our camp down to the corral. Stu and Romero are getting these yearlings ready for the Camelid conference in Riobamba next month we?ll all be attending. Camelids, if your not familiar with such taxonomy, are those group of grazing mammals in the camel family. Long legged, two toed ungulates like camels in the old world and here llamas, vicunas, and that?s right alpacas. Stu has well over 500 alpacas scattered throughout his properties and was the first man to reintroduce alpacas to Ecuador in fact. He is a bit of an alpaca ranching hero round these parts with good reason. During the Inca period llamas and alpacas were widely distributed as beasts of burden, food, and fiber but following the Spanish conquest and subsequent introduction of European livestock alpacas declined and eventually disappeared in the Ecuadorian highlands though held on in places like Peru and Bolivia. Stu essentially almost single handedly is responsible for the reintroduction and breeding of alpacas in Ecuador. He is an amazing fellow and full of wonderful stories, like how when fed up with corrupt agricultural ministry bueracrats in Peru he smuggled hundreds of alpacas overland across the border into Ecuador clandestinely with his guys. This included some sureys, an alpaca breed with long dread locks looking cute as a button. Today they are the only sureys in Ecuador and sure to be a novelty at the conference. This conference though Stu tells me will be different. There will be not only Ecuadorians involved, but also Peruvians, Bolivians, and camelid breeders and enthusiasts from Andean nations and beyond. The stakes then are anted up a bit and especially for Stu perhaps being the famous man he is here. Though I doubt it is of much concern to him. He is Stu after all.

We spent the morning in the corral with him and Romero learning about the subtle nuances of alpaca wool texture, aesthetic preference, and other judging characteristics. Essentially an alpaca beauty contest! It is a process much more difficult and intricate than I had ever given thought to and well, I suppose I?ve never had much reason to give it much thought either. There are fine differences between the kinks of fiber strands, guard hairs over inner strands, bushiness over the eyes, length of noses, so on and so forth. By the end of the morning Stu and Romero had narrowed this herd of yearlings down to about a half dozen potential beauty contest contestants. Along the way we were able to help out some with the judging process catching alpacas. They predictably underestimate your reach and the best technique is to sidle up close and shoot out a quick hand with a good grip on the scruff of the neck or behind the ear. Holding them firm and still with another grabbed onto their tail. It is much like I remember catching and shearing sheep in New Zealand when I was an exchange student there many years ago. Through the whole process they make cute little soft whispers and moans big black eyes staring nervously back from under overflowing bushy brows. Certainly a motley crew of beauty contestants and in the end about four or five lucky contestants made the cut.

Congratulations finalists your heading to Riobamba!