Alpacas- Permission granted from Wikicomons

 

Reproduction


Alpacas are diecious, having both male and female alpacas. Their typical breeding season is from the end of November to late April or early May, but they can have babies anytime. A female alpaca is fully mature between 10-18 months of age. A male, on the other hand, can not reproduce until they are approx. 2.5-3 years old; this is  because they need ample testicular growth and their penis needs to be freed.(9)
 
For ovulation to take place:
The female alpacas are polyestrous, meaning that ovulation occurs unexpectedly about 26 hours after the male and female have mated.(4) Alpacas mate in the prone position. A female will lay down and a male will go on top of her. A female has a gestation period from between 342-345 days.(4)
Many females can become pseudo pregnant. This is because 1/5 of male alpacas are sterile (probably because they are to young and are not totally devopled).(4) When female alpacas mate, they think that they are pregnant and therefore they only mate once.

Brown Nosing, Photo Permission given Joseph T. Rescinito
Babies!
Female alpacas give live birth to crias, baby alpacas. The cria usually weigh around 14-20 pounds at birth. It is very rare for more than 1 cria to be born at a time. Alpacas are very social animals, when a new cria is born they are welcomed by the herd.
Watch this video just to see how cute a cria is from its first step!

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