- Alpacas belong to a sub-family called camelids as do camels, guanaco and vicuna.
- There are two types (or breeds) of alpaca: the Suri, which have lustrous fine fiber with no crimp and the Huacaya, whose fleece has a crimp or wavy quality. Worldwide, the alpaca population is about 90% Huacaya and 10% Suri.
- Camelids have the habit of defecating in a fixed area and avoid grazing around the piles, thus keeping parasite infestation low.
- Camelids are very efficient converters of forages for they are ruminants that have only three chambers in their stomach.