According to the ARI (Alpaca Registry, Inc.), an organization that tracks the lineage of American alpacas, there are a whopping 16 recognized colors of alpacas. The Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association recognizes 22, the other 6 being combinations of the solid colors like “pinto” and “pattern”.

When you register as part of the ARI, they send you actual samples of each color in this handy chart.

The white-brown spectrum on the left is fairly self-explanatory. “Bay blacks” are alpacas that are almost black, but are actually a really, really dark brown. The “silver” greys are shades of true grey, unlike the “rose” greys, which are somewhere between grey and brown.

The colors and percentage of alpacas in America registered as those colors is below. According to the ARI, our Tulip is actually a rarity, as only 0.1% of the alpacas in America are medium fawns. Crazy! Though we love all our colored alpacas, whites are by far the most common because you can dye their fiber. In South America, not-white alpacas actually got eaten!

White                          25.8% (Merlin and Bravado)
Beige                           5.8%
Light Fawn                 9.2% (Tuscany and Morocco)
Medium Fawn           0.1% (Tulip)
Dark Fawn                  5.5%
Light Brown               4.3%
Medium Brown          10.2% (Tripoli and Marcello)
Dark Brown                6.3%
Bay Black                    4.3%
True Black                  9.8% (Brittany)
Light Silver Grey       1%
Medium Silver Grey  2.5% (Mikayla)
Dark Silver Grey         1.3% (Marseille)
Light Rose Grey          0.9%
Medium Rose Grey    1.8%
Dark Rose Grey           1%
Unknown                      0.1%