The Color Black in Alpacas

Black would seem to be a single color, but in alpacas, there are many shades of black. It's rather like that drawer full of black socks. After a couple dozen washings, the socks that started out similar shades of black start to look very different. In today's rambling post, I'm going to talk about the color black in alpacas and how I deal with the subtle color differences in black fleeces.

Officially, there are two shades of black in alpacas. The registry and the show division recognize Bay Black and True Black. Bay black has been described to me as like a really dark coffee -- only slightly darker -- such a dark brown that it's actually black. True black, then, is everything else in the black color family.

Then, there are alpacas that fade at the tip of the fleece. This is called "tipping". Some breeders argue that any alpaca that tips is a bay black. Others argue these should be called tipping true blacks. Since the show rules say color should be judged at the skin and it's the tips of the fiber that fade, I think I fall into the tipping true black category. Tipping alpacas may show lighter fiber on the blanket area within a few months of shearing and will show definite tipping by shearing the following year.

There are alpacas described as blue-blacks. These animals are so black they almost shine blue in the sun and they, supposedly, do not fade or tip at all. However, every black alpaca I have seen -- even all the blue-black alpacas -- shows fading or tipping of two or three year old fiber on the topknot or lower legs. The fleece doesn't weather enough in a year to show any color change on the tips of the annually shorn blanket, but fiber that stays on the animal for two or three years almost always shows some fading to a dark reddish brown.

I guess that in my experience, all black alpacas fade to a reddish brown with time -- it's just that some fade much more quickly and more dramatically than others.

So how do all these differences happen and what does it all mean for spinners? My opinions and experiences will follow in future installments of this blog.

Cria tend to tip more than adult black alpacas. For a long time, this has been explained among breeders as the "harsh effects of the amniotic fluid on the fiber". Other breeders have recently chimed in suggesting amniotic fluid simply isn't harsh enough to cause bleaching or tipping of alpaca cria fleece.

We now have experience with three of our own black cria (Del, Percy, Maggee), plus experience with Jubilee as a weanling and knowledge of a number of other black cria born at local farms. In our experience, cria are more susceptible to tipping than adults, and that animals that show significant tipping on their first fleece will probably show tipping in subsequent blanket fleeces.

In addition, we also have experience with exposure to amniotic fluid causing tipping of black adult fleece. When Maggee was born, the placenta was partially delivered with the cria and hung from Jubilee for quite some time. As a result, amniotic fluid smeared onto Jubilee's tail and from her tail onto her flanks. A month after Maggee's birth, this same area is showing substantially greater tipping than the rest of Jubilee's fiber.

To put this more succinctly, amniotic fluid smeared externally onto adult fiber causes adult alpaca fiber to tip. I take this as evidence of some compound in the amniotic fluid acting on the fiber to cause the tipping.

As far as the chemistry of amniotic fluid goes, I know very little. I don't know if amniotic fluid is acidic or basic or harsh. I'm also not convinced the amniotic fluid has to be harsh to cause bleaching or tipping. The amniotic fluid simply has to catalyze or otherwise facilitate the conversion of black melanin to lighter colors.

Melanin in mammals comes in two types -- eumelanin and pheomelanin. Both types of melanin are families of related chemical compounds, not specific chemicals. Melanin is produced by specialized cells called melanocytes exported into the hair shaft.

Eumelanin is black melanin, but also the brown melanin of chocolate Laborador Retrievers, red Border Collies, and other dogs with non-black (brown or liver) noses. Pheomelanin, also called red melanin, is the yellow of yellow labs, the red of Irish Setters, and the tan in black and tan dogs.

Most -- probably all -- fawn and brown colors in alpacas result from various colors and intensities of pheomelanin pigments. The eumelanin browns found in other species don't seem to exist in alpacas, although they are theoretically both possible and likely.

True black alpacas are almost certainly eumelanin pigmented animals. The debate in the breeding community surrounds the tipping blacks and the bay blacks. Some maintain that bay black alpacas are actually result from extremely dark pheomelanin. I would really like to see the results of chemical analysis of melanin from bay black alpacas, because the breeding results I'm familiar with are somewhat confusing on the matter.

And then, what about those tipping alpacas. My story -- at least for the moment -- is that tipping black alpacas are eumelanin-pigmented animals. We know that eumelanin is a chemical family that contains both black and brown pigments. We know that loss of function of a single enzyme shifts production from black to brown. It is not at all unreasonable to suppose certain members of the chemical family can be readily converted from black to brown by exposure to the elements or amniotic fluid. From there, it isn't much of a stretch to suggest that animals more prone to tipping produce a higher fraction of the easily converted eumelanins than animals that tip more slowly. Another option is that the slower-tipping animals produce more chemical inhibitors of the conversion from brown eumelanin to black eumelanin.

All this talk of the melanin and black and tipping black and bay black may be interesting to alpaca breeders. Others in the audience may be totally lost and starting to ask if this post has anything to do with spinning or knitting alpaca fiber.

Well, I started this whole post with the best intentions of talking about the color variations in black alpaca fleeces. Since even black fleeces vary in color, it is a good idea to find a single fleece large enough for a project, or to blend two black fleeces early in the project to achieve uniform color.

I once had a spinner bring a hank of black alpaca to my booth trying for a color match so she could finish a project. The fiber was the blackest alpaca I've ever seen with lots of blue tones and absolutely no brown or red tones. I've handled a lot of black fleeces from a lot of different animals, and to my eyes every naturally black alpaca fleece I've ever handled has red tones. Either that fiber came from a blue-black alpaca the likes of which I have never seen, or that fiber was dyed. I'm betting on the dye.

Moral of the story for spinners and knitters, is that natural fibers -- even black natural fibers -- exhibit a great deal of color variation. It is a good idea to purchase enough fiber to finish a project so you don't end up trying to match a fleece from a unique gene pool and set of environmental conditions. When fiber from a single animal is not sufficient or available for a project, combining fleeces prior to spinning -- usually by blending on the carder -- can be a good way to obtain color uniformity from slightly different fleeces.