Distant relative of camel: Baby alpaca born at Moscow Zoo

Visitors at the Moscow Zoo can now see the baby alpaca. Born just recently, on 26 August, the female is already walking round the enclosure with her adult relatives.

Zoo specialists examined the newborn to make sure she was perfectly healthy. At that time her weight was about one kilo, it’s now almost six times that much.

The baby often stays in the outdoor enclosure with her mother. Other members of the family have been showing interest in the baby and often come and sniff her. She is actively exploring her surroundings, staring at the visitors while strolling around the enclosure and, when frightened, running straight to her mother for help. The baby will stay close to her mother throughout the first year of her life, just like in the wild. Until she’s four months, she will feed on her mother’s milk and later will gradually start eating solids such as hay, willow branches and grass.

Golden fleece and threat of extinction

Alpacas are domesticated descendants of the vicuna, a South American relative of the camel. It is believed that Peruvian Indians were the first to breed alpacas about 6,000 years ago. In the Andes the animals are still bred at special farms for their warm and light wool.

The famous golden fleece refers to vicuna wool, to get which almost the entire species had been exterminated during the colonization of South America. Hunting the animals is now under an official ban. Zoos worldwide maintain a stable population of the species. The Moscow Zoo is involved in the European programme for the conservation of vicunas, getting healthy offspring at its Centre for Rare Animal Species Reproduction near Volokolamsk.

You can spot the cria with a herd of adult alpacas on the zoo’s old territory near The Birds of Prey Rock pavilion. For vicuna, lama, guanaco and capybara, you should visit the Humpless Camels of South America enclosure. 

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