Marie Drury, aged 11, of Philadelphia, Penna, for her question:

What is an alpaca`

The alpaca was first reported to the Old World way back in 1544, The then Treasurer‑General of Peru described the cuddly animal to friends at home in Spain. He was not quite certain whether the animal was a sheep or a camel. And we can forgive him for being confused. For the alpaca would remind anyone of both a sheep and a camel,He stands as tall as a large, long‑legged sheep, His coat is fleecy, long and softer than the best of wool. He eats grass. What's more, way back in 1544, the Spaniards ate his meat and found it tasted like tender lamb. Nowadays no one eats alpaca meat.The head and face of the strange animal are far from sheepish. So is his character. Ahead portrait would definitely remind you of a camel. He has the same large brooding eyes, the same pouting lips, the same somewhat snooty nose. And, like a camel, the alpaca can spit. If you annoy him, he will spit right in your eye. And the stuff he spits has a horrible smell,

 Actually, the alpaca is related to the camel. In fact he is more of a camel than the camels of Arabia. If he were a snob, and he looks like he might be, he might regard these distant relatives as overgrown, turncoat upstarts. And well he might.

For the camel clan got its start 1n North America. Forty million years ago they roamed our land in herds. These ancestors were small fellows. They were far more like the alpaca and llama cousins than they were like the camels of Arabia. At some time, maybe less than a million years ago, a branch of the camel clan emmigrated to the Old World. Maybe this was a good thing. For there they thrived and grew big, What’s more, our own camels died out. Only their children in South America, the llamas, alpacas and such managed to survive, Like a camel, the alpaca can store up food and water. He has a three‑.part stomach. He can go without food for two or three days and without water for several days longer, However, he has no hump.

The fame of the alpaca is in his coat. It is the softest, silkiest fiber imaginable, He is herded and tended for that coat; a brown, black, white or brindle, Daytime he grazes high in the Andes of Bolivia and southern Peru. At night he Is sheltered in a corral.

There are less than a million of these precious animals alive.  Every year or two the fleecy beastie is shorn like a sheep. His precious coat is woven into soft‑soft cloth and he returns to his mountains to grow another one, Being a mountain animal, the alpaca is a good climber. He has special climbing feet. They are cloven hoofs with hooked spurs to keep him from slipping, Rarely does this high living fellow come lower than 6,000 feet bone sea, level,