By: Robin Day, Luna Rosa Ranch Suri Alpacas
Most alpacas sold in the United States are registered alpacas, meaning their parentage has been verified through DNA analysis or blood testing/typing and they are listed in a database of registered alpacas. Only alpaca offspring with two registered parents can now be registered, the registry is closed to further importation.
While there are several alpaca registries in the world, in the United States market, only alpacas registered with ARI (Alpaca Registry Inc) in Lincoln, Nebraska will be readily sellable. There is not reciprocity with other registries, such as the Canadian registry. When buying an alpaca for an alpaca business in the U.S., always ensure it is registered with ARI in Lincoln, Nebraska.
ARI-registered alpacas have a registration certificate listing their known & verified ancestors since importation. These certificates can be viewed by doing a database search on the ARI website. They can be requested from current owners, and often they are posted in sales listings. On AlpacaNation.com (one of the large listing sites for multiple farms), there is the ability for owners to upload ARI certificates to display in an alpaca’s listing. Right above the text description of an alpaca, there is an icon (graphic) that looks like a big sun and says "certificate". If it is colored yellow (as opposed to black and white), it means the breeder has taken time to scan the alpaca's ARI certificate and post it. Double-click on the yellow icon to open and view the alpaca’s ARI certificate.
An ARI certificate reports four generations of ancestors in four vertical columns, starting from the left with the alpaca’s parents, and going back to the alpaca’s great-great grandparents in the far right column. If an ancestor is not known, the space is blank. Note - due to variable length of names, and the fact that there are often a lot of blanks, columns look hodge-podge and over-lap, but remember each column is vertically aligned on the left —-this is the key to understanding an ARI certificate.
Top Center, right under the words “Certificate of Registration” is the name of the alpaca a particular certificate applies to. Below the alpaca’s name is the name of the registered owner(s)at the time the certificate was printed. (The date the certificate was printed appears in the bottom left corner).
The top half of the certificate is the family tree of the sire of the alpaca whose certificate it is. The lower half pertains to the dam’s side. The left-most column is the names of the alpaca's 2 parents (if known). The next column to the right is the names of the alpaca’s 4 grandparents (if known). The next column to the right is the alpaca's 8 great-grand parents (if known). And the last column, the one farthest right, is the great-great grand parents - of which there are 16 possible. Very few alpacas at this time have 16 known great-great grandparents.
If an animal is an import, then the parents and rest of the ancestors are not known and the certificate is completely blank in the middle.
The more advanced generation an alpaca is, the more ancestors are known, and these ancestors can be researched in the ARI data base. Why is this important? You better know an alpaca’s breeding potential and get less surprises in breeding the more you know of an alpaca’s pedigree and its ancestors. And, in a breeding program that is what you want -- predictable and replicable output exemplifying your vision of the perfect alpaca.
Full fourth generation alpacas are readily available now in the United States — these have 8 known great grandparents, 4 known grandparents and 2 parents – all of which can be researched. Seven breeding decisions go into producing a full fourth generation alpaca, most of which should have resulted in cria that are an improvement over the dam. That is why they are called “advanced” generation, compared to, say, an import, who may be the product of random breeding of alpacas running lose on the altiplano.
In most cases there is a sire and dam reported for each alpaca offspring born in the U.S., however in the case of females who were imported pregnant, their offspring were grand-fathered into the registry with no sire and are technically classified as an import with the importation designation of the dam, even though they were born here.
For each alpaca ancestor listed in an ARI certificate, under the name is that alpaca's registration number, the word suri or huacaya (sometimes this was abbreviated as SA or HA), and the country of origin if an import or United States if not an import, and the color, listed by ARI color chart abbreviations (WH = white, TB = true black, MF = medium fawn, DSG = dark silver gray, MRG = medium rose gray, LB = light brown, BG = beige, etc.). If an alpaca has multiple colors, up to two are listed for each animal, with the most prevalent color first. For example an alpaca color listed as MB WH would likely be a medium brown alpaca with white trim, mostly likely on the head or lower extremities.
It’s worth mentioning that over the years, ARI has revised the format of certificates several times – not all certificates in current use look identical, but they all contain this information. When sales occur or certificates are reissued, they’re issued in the currently-approved format.
Looking at an ARI cert, at top left corner, you can verify that the registry is ARI (Alpaca Registry Inc) and not some other registry that doesn't have the same value in the U.S.
Looking along the left side, you can see the issue date and know since the certificate is already issued, that this particular alpaca has completed registration (versus just “pending” registration) and that there is no doubt about the sire – the alpaca is already DNA verified. (One of the possible pitfalls of buying crias that haven't completed the registration process is sometimes Daddy turns out to be someone other than who the seller thinks it is and the cria may not have the same value with a different Daddy.).
You can also confirm the registration number, alpaca’s gender, date of birth, official registered colors, and you can see who the owner of the sire and dam are and who the breeder was(i.e. who made the breeding choice that produced this alpaca -- the dam owner at conception).
When buying an alpaca, it is good to confirm that the seller you’re dealing with actually has the alpaca registered in their name and is the legal owner – if so, the seller’s name should appear at the top center, under the alpaca’s name. A possible pitfall in buying alpacas is that sometimes an alpaca people have purchased is listed for sale before they have paid it off, or they are listing a cria for sale that they don’t have full title to since they are still paying for the dam. This is not an impossible situation, but there have been tie-ups and lawsuits over these complications. It is a wise precaution to consult with the registered owner of record to ensure they will transfer the alpaca to you if you’re buying an alpaca in a situation where the seller does not have the alpaca registered to them.
And lastly, the certificate shows whether the alpaca is registered as a suri or huacaya (shown either at the top center of the certificate or in the lower right corner).
For a minimal fee, anyone can become a member of ARI and be set up with online access to the database. Logged on to the data base, you can pull up copies of the ARI certificate for any registered alpaca and also see a list of any offspring an alpaca has produced.
This is particularly important for suri breeders who may wish to ensure any alpaca they are considering buying or any stud they are thinking of using has not produced any huacaya offspring.
A suri dam with a year with no cria registered is a red-flag to suri breeders who may suspect a huacaya cria was produced but not registered.
And for all female alpacas, it is a good idea to check their production record: the ideal is a cria every year about the same time of year, year-in, year-out, and of the same breed as the dam. Anything less is something to question (and often there are reasonable explanations such as holding over an animal who previously birthed in late fall, to move her to a spring schedule for birthing).
What else to verify? If an alpaca is being sold as pure Peruvian – follow the ancestor trail at ARI and verify that it is indeed full Peruvian. For color breeders, the key to what color genetics an animal might possess is often the colors of the ancestors and the offspring’s colors. A special hint on what colors an alpaca is carrying comes from any breedings to a black anywhere in the family tree: black is believed by alpaca geneticists to be
recessive to all other colors, so breeding to black is a way to see what colors an alpaca is carrying.
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