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Genesis of a Breed
The SLA's Role in Defining and Refining the Suri Llama
By Daniel Powell
Few animals compete with the well-bred suri llama for sheer
ethereal elegance. None but the perfect suri llama radiates
that quality of stillness in a rainstorm that inspires the
poet in each suri llama breeder. But, as a population, as
a breed, and as a sustainable investment the suri llama is
a work-in-progress, a diamond in the rough.
The Privileged Purebred
We share our home with two purebred, registered Cornish Rex
cats worth a tidy sum. Our barn, however, often serves as
lodging for a phenotypically variable population of domestic
short-haired cats of the “mouser” variety. These
barn cats usually show up as kittens skulking in the wood
pile and occasionally in a box on our doorstep. They arrive
with teary eyes, itchy ears, and mangy coats, but are fortunate
to leave vetted, well-fed and adopted by charitable cat lovers.
Yet it would take little effort to produce a list of people
waiting to pay a king's ransom for the privilege of owning
a Cornish Rex kitten if we chose to breed them. Why such disparity
between the Cornish Rex and the barn cat? The answer is “breed
status.” The Cornish Rex is a reliable investment, an
art form, and yes, a luxury item. The barn cat belongs to
a wildly unpredictable, albeit charming, population that has
persisted as a mongrel swarm since long before the day of
the pedigreed house cat.
That the general population of llamas is more akin to that
of barn cats than of the Cornish Rex begs the question. Is
it possible to tweeze from such a variable population of mongrel
llamas the makings of a purebred suri llama? Since the Cornish
Rex breed can be traced back to just such a population of
barn cats in Cornwall, England only fifty years ago, the answer
is an unequivocal yes!
The Rewards of Human Ingenuity
Every breed existing today was born of isolation, selection
and inbreeding. Typically, regional populations arose that
were selected for a specific function. Once these “landraces”
or “primitive breeds” came to be viewed as isolated
populations, there began the inadvertent process of selection
toward ideal individuals representing that population and
away from individuals that might represent a neighboring population.
This directional selection within these closed populations
gradually reduced both the phenotypic and the genotypic diversity
of the population (by way of inbreeding) and pushed it toward
becoming an “improved breed” or a “standardized
breed.” This gradual shaping of a population into a
breed can take many human lifetimes. But by understanding
and deliberate harnessing of the forces of nature this need
not be the case.
A deliberate, systematic approach toward shaping a population
into a breed is not the common or most traditional path of
breed development, but it has been employed with great success.
Many modern standardized breeds were developed using methodically
planned strategies which utilize the same forces at work in
the traditional process, but take a fraction of the time.
This less conventional, more calculated approach to breed
development gave rise to tropical breeds of milking cattle,
today’s “traditional” Thanksgiving turkey,
the familiar Doberman Pinscher, and countless other breeds.
This is human ingenuity at its finest.
Methods for Success
Can we take a genetically diverse and phenotypically variable
population of “unimproved” llamas and shape them
into a sustainable, uniform population of suri llamas? Certainly!
Much of what is necessary to accomplish this goal is made
possible for us through the Suri Llama Association (SLA).
First, to prevent the suri llama population from being confused
with neighboring populations and indiscriminately interbred
with, say, silky llamas or suri alpacas, we must maintain
a strict breed standard that quantifies the distinctive traits
that define the suri llama. We might think of this as “brand
identity,” to borrow a broad commercial term. A breed
standard is an authoritative tool, representing the idealized
animal and carefully guiding the individual breeder’s
decisions. The standard’s primary function, however,
is that it forms a community of many breeders “selecting”
in a common direction. As a direct consequence, the gene frequencies
of the population (which a single breeder cannot hope to affect)
can be shifted rapidly in the direction of the ideal.
Second, breeders can employ the Suri Llama Registry and Verifiable
Pedigree Certificate to isolate and protect the “purity”
of the population. As stated above, all breeds arise from
one form of isolation or another. Sometimes the isolation
is a natural, geographic separation from other populations
of the species; in other instances it is separation from other
populations of the species by the will of breeders. Only by
isolating the suri llama population from the “unimproved”
llama population can suri llamas begin the journey toward
uniformity, predictability and, ultimately, breed status.
Keuring Sets the Standard
Third, by selecting judiciously, and using keuring to grade
each animal, we increase phenotypic uniformity within the
population. Naturally, this requires resolute culling.
We can no longer rely on “corrective mating”
to remedy an animal’s faults. Rather, we must breed
“like to like,” utilizing only the best animals
and retiring those which fall short of the ideal standard.
Keuring is a reliable way for breeders to evaluate each animal
on its breeding merits and on specific quantifiable traits.
With each animal judged against the breed standard and
not against others in the show ring, the population is less
vulnerable to the trends, politics, and prejudices of competitive
showing, which has been the ruin of so many breeds.
Fourth, to ensure genetic sustainability while maintaining
the brand identity of the national herd, both keuring and
the Suri Llama Registry may be utilized to allow a select
and limited flow of genes from the general llama population.
It is true that outcrossing can correct the potential negative
effects of inbreeding in a single generation, but it takes
many generations of line breeding to correct the deleterious
effects of outcrossing. Like a well-designed water dam, keuring
and the SLA Registry serve to maintain the genetic viability
of the suri llama population by controlling the influx of
potentially disadvantageous outcrosses. This, in turn, circuitously
encourages the gamut of other healthy, trait-fixing breeding
systems hitherto underutilized within our industry.
Strength in Numbers
Finally, an organized community of breeders can better share
information, technology and even genetic resources to the
benefit of its members and the animals they breed. Consider
the expressed concern that the population of suris was founded
with too few suri studs. If suri breeders continue to over-utilize
males as in the past, the level of inbreeding will indeed
quickly build to an unhealthy level. Retaining and utilizing
too few studs from each year’s crop of offspring quickly
increases the degree of inbreeding in a population and inadvertently
necessitates outcrossing. But, by retaining many studs
from each generation, especially if the population of females
that produces them is genetically diverse and phenotypically
strong, the potential negative effects of inbreeding are minimized.
This practice translates into a healthier gene pool with less
risk of inbreeding depression. Retaining more studs also results
in a more uniform population because new, unwanted alleles
are not introduced. Rather, breeders reshuffle the alleles
already carefully selected. To maintain the genetic viability
of the collective herd will require the entire suri llama
community working together.
The Suri Llama Association has constructed a framework under
which this population of llamas will continually grow more
uniform, more reliable and more valuable with each successive
generation. It has created a quiet space, its own stillness
in a rainstorm, where the suri llama can grow to become more
than the sum of its parts: a space where the suri llama can
gain footing in an ever demanding market and develop toward
breed status and all its privileges.
Daniel Powell has had a passion for animal and plant
breeding since the age of eight. While much of his technical
training in genetics was obtained in the pursuit of his
bachelor’s degree in genetics and cell biology, he
credits his lifelong practice and study of breed development
and preservation for the bulk of his understanding. With
his partner and their distinctive herd of llamas, Dan makes
his home in the rolling hills of western Wisconsin.
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