Our Alpaca wool products from Peru and New Zealand have long been favorites on the web site. We were happy to see that treehugger.com recently called alpacas “green sheep” for the ease in which they coexist with the land.

According to the Portland Tribune, “They don’t mind eating brush, fallen leaves and other undesirable vegetation, leaving the good stuff for species that don’t have the stomach to digest such roughage.”

Alpaca fur grows quickly and is lighter, warmer and softer than most sheep wool. Because the animals have adapted to survive in harsh weather, their fleece is resistant to sun and water, qualities it retains when it’s woven or felted. Why spend fossil fuels manufacturing synthetic fibers when the real deal already exists?

Another quirky, but environmentally beneficial, alpaca habit is building “poop piles.” A herd of alpacas keep their dung confined to one or two piles (sometimes they even line up to go to the bathroom in the proper spot). This makes it really easy to recycle or compost their manure for garden fertilizer or even biofuel.

And if their environmental benefits weren’t enough, for 5,000 years, alpacas have been a staple of life in Peru, where more than 150,000 of the poorest families in the Andes Mountains rely on alpaca for their prime source of income.