270 
THE ALPACA.—NO. 4 . 
THE ALPACA.—No. 4. 
Reproduction , Propagation, fyc.— The alpaca, in 
«.ne mountains of Peru, brings forth her young at 
the age of three years ; but in Europe, when highly 
fed, the age of reproduction is at least a year earlier. 
On the Andes, as well as in Ireland, she usually 
receives the male in October or November, and 
brings forth one at a birth, in the month of April or 
May. It is remarkable, however, that she should 
be covered by the male immediately after giving 
birth to her young, a fact which has been fully 
corroborated by Thomas Stevenson, Esq., of Oban, 
in Argyleshire, Scotland, and by Mr. Robert Bell, of 
Villa House, near Listowel, in the county of Kerry, 
in Ireland, both of whom are practical and observ¬ 
ant farmers, and have successfully raised the 
alpaca for a number of years. “ The female,’ 
says Mr. Stevenson, in a letter bearing date of 
April 10th, 1843, “ was invariably covered by the 
male two or three days after she had a lamb ; and, 
from the singularity of this circumstance, it attract¬ 
ed my very particular attention, and I regularly 
marked down the date on which the female was 
covered, and found that she went with lamb a very 
few days less than a year.” In a communication 
by Mr. Bell, of March 18th, the same year, he 
says, “ I find they usually copulate here in the 
month of October or November, although the 
female takes the ram invariably after having 
brought forth her young, which is generally in the 
month of May or June. At the age of nine 
months (?) the produce of the feminine gender will 
begin to breed, at which time their wool will be 
found to be six inches long, and their height to the 
shoulder thirty-four, to the top of the head, fifty- 
one inches.” 
The llama and alpaca, as well as the alpaca and 
vicuna, can be induced to breed together, and of the 
former union there are frequent examples to be met 
with in Europe as well as in Peru. From this 
alliance a beautiful hybrid results, if possible, finer 
to the eye than either parent, and also more easily 
trained to work, but like the mule, it does not pro¬ 
create,—a fact which has been confirmed by 
General O’Brien, an observant Irish gentleman, who 
resided twenty years in Peru, and was actively 
employed under San Martin, the Liberator, in the 
War of Independence—a great traveller on the 
Andes, and besides a landed proprietor and miner 
in the district of Puno. Subjoined is an extract 
from a communication by him, dated at Liverpool, 
June 6th, 1841 :—- 
“ You ask me ^whether the alpaca is still used in 
Peru as a beast of burden. I answer that it is, but 
not generally, and only by the poorer class of In¬ 
dians, who do not own many llamas. There is, 
however, a beautiful animal produced between the 
llama and alpaca, much handsomer in form and 
figure than either, and also better adapted for work, 
but it does not breed. * * * * j n p eru we ca }| 
them machurgas, and these are the animals I prin¬ 
cipally used at my mines to bring down the ores 
from the mountains. 
“ From the sterility of this hybridous race, it 
would follow that the alpaca is a distinct variety of 
the llama tribe, differing as much from its allied 
species, as the horse does from the ass; and, con¬ 
sequently, that the two domestic animals of the 
Peruvians were not brought to their present state 
by means of crossing. Their intermixture is a 
modern expedient by the Spaniards It is a rule of 
the vital economy, that life only springs from life, 
and every being is consequently endowed with the 
property of generating an offspring, inheriting a 
nature similar to its own. When the species vary, 
this rule ceases to act; whence, although possess¬ 
ing a strong physiological resemblance in many 
important points of their organization, there must 
necessarily be some material difference between the 
llama and alpaca in the functions of generation, 
which it is more than presumable equally extends 
to the wild species, and that difference produces an 
irregularity at variance with the laws of nature, 
constituting an essential condition of life.” 
It appears from the report of M. Bory de Saint 
Vincent, a distinguished naturalist, who accom¬ 
panied the French army into Spain, under Marshal 
Soult, that he observed in the Zoological Garden of 
Don Francisco de Theran, at San Lucar de Barra- 
meda, in Andalusia, a female llama pregnant by an 
alpaca, and also three alpa-vigonias (the cross be¬ 
tween the vicuna and alpaca), the fleeces of which 
were much longer, and six times heavier than those 
of any other variety. The Spaniards were proud 
of this acquisition, thinking that they had thereby 
obtained a new race of wool-bearing animals, cal¬ 
culated to people their hills, and repair the loss sus¬ 
tained through the decline in their Merino flocks. 
By the experiment of crossing, however, they de¬ 
feated the very object which they had in view, as 
the animals gradually died off without leaving any 
offspring, and in the course of a few years there 
was scarcely one individual Jo be found in the 
kingdom. 
There are two facts, however, concerning the 
procreation of the Andes sheep, which ought not to 
be concealed—one, a difficulty of copulation arising 
from natural causes, and the other an almost un¬ 
controllable and jealous disposition of the males at 
this season. The difficulty of copulation, and the 
manner in which it is overcome by the Indians, 
were first noticed by Hernandez, and it is said that 
nothing can be more accurate than his remarks, as 
exemplified in the practice of the present day. 
Without the assistance of man, sexual intercourse 
certainly can and does take place, as seen in the 
wild races, the structural formation of which is the 
same ; but in the tame ones it invariably gives rise 
to confusion. In Peru, the rutting season com¬ 
mences at the close of October, when the animals 
become restless and lascivious, and, according to 
Dr. Unanue, the estimable writer on the climate of 
Lima, in 1806, “ all nature seems to be in motion; 
vegetation assumes a new form ; earthquakes and 
volcanic eruptions frequently occur, and the air is 
filled with an electric fluid. Every production then 
glows with fresh fire, and by an active stimulus 
animals are impelled to the propagation and conse¬ 
quent preservation of their own kinds.” At this 
period the working llama has a respite; for it is 
regarded as unsafe to put a burden upon his back, 
and indeed dangerous to thwart his wishes, or con¬ 
trol his actions. Both the tame and wfild breeds, it 
is said, sometimes fight outrageously for theis 
