The Price of Crossbreeding
When international demand for alpaca fiber increased, some farmers sought ways to boost their production. Their solution seemed simple: crossbreed alpacas with llamas to get more fiber per animal. While this strategy did increase fiber volume, it came with a hidden cost that’s still affecting the industry today.
The impact of this crossbreeding is startling: genetic studies have revealed that approximately 80% of today’s alpacas and 40% of llamas show signs of hybridization. For alpacas, this widespread interbreeding has contributed to a general coarsening of their fiber. More concerning still, researchers warn that the original alpaca genome is in danger of disappearing entirely, with hybridization rates potentially exceeding 90% in some populations.
This modern challenge ironically echoes what happened during the Spanish conquest, when the chaos of that period led to inadvertent hybridization among surviving camelids. It serves as a powerful reminder that when we prioritize quantity over quality in breeding programs, we risk losing the very traits that made these animals valuable in the first place.
Here is a video about the alpaca industry in North America. They also introduce a mechanism to ensure fiber quality through a DNA registry: