Winter - Classical MileEnd Alpacas

Crias and crisis in Salento !
Hilary welcomes the arrival of the first crias
to be born in Puglia but struggles to bring her
plans for the development of her property to a
satisfactory conclusion …
So here we are in the Salento region of
Puglia, three months further on and so
much has happened.
The alpacas have settled in very well. They
are in a large pen in our stonemason's garden,
behind eight feet high stone walls so no chance
of feral dogs getting in! We have found a local
supplier of alfalfa pellets which they have
taken to well and a new supplier of hay so all is
now much improved on the food front. They
have no grazing to speak of but the diet has
suited them well. I keep the pen scrupulously
clean to avoid any chance of intestinal worms
and we have had no upset tummies or mites to
deal with.
Our first cria, a black female suri, was born
to dark brown suri Atlantic Cosmos on July
9th. Her sire I-Spy Legacy has certainly put
his stamp on her. Her fleece has excellent
independent locks and very high lustre as you
will see from the photograph. Named Nicola
del Salento she is, as far as we know, the first
alpaca ever to be born in captivity south of
Rome. She has hit the headlines and was
featured in Italia! magazine.
A month later she was followed by two
more crias: Giuglia del Salento, a black female
huacaya sired by our Zarza Rizardo and a fawn
male Nando del Salento sired by Wessex Cosmos.
Finally Emilia del Salento was born out of
"We are delighted with the
quality of all of these [ cria ]
and only sorry we shall not be
in the UK with them to show
them all off on the show circuit
in 2008."
Nicola del Salento, premier alpaca cria of Puglia and star of Italia! magazine
Emilia del Salento a pure white, very beautiful female huacaya
64 Alpaca World Magazine Winter 2007 / 08