Suri fleece is like a silk curtain, draping over the body and falling in lustrous locks. Suri is an exotic fibre and suris are rare, only a small percentage of the Australian alpaca herd are suri.

The word “suri” originates from the language of the Aymaran Indians and is, we believe, a descriptive word.  There are several accounts as to its meaning, some believe it means “straight”, some believe it means lustre as in the lustrous feathers of the South American Rhea and some believe it means birdlike. Here at Wallaby Ridge, we believe that the special quality suri possesses is its lustre, a quality we are striving to enhance across our herd.

The dominance of the suri trait provides the opportunity to breed suris from huacayas.  When breeding to a homozygous stud suri male, all progeny are suri, as this fleece type is dominant, and the first cross female progeny can be serviced by (hopefully) another homozygous suri male to define the breed.  Some of Wallaby Ridge’s first cross female suris show remarkable lustre and locking (see Clover, above).

To date not many suri males are homozygous, in which case the progeny may sometimes be of the huacaya type.  Such progeny born born here at Wallaby Ridge have lovely handling fleece.  Candice (shown to the left) is an example, with tons of coverage, bundling and lustre.