Just shy of her 28th birthday, a resident of Aldergrove, B.C., is vying to be a world record holder.
But she’s not an athlete, a chess champion or an explorer.
Lolita is an alpaca, and she might just be the oldest one in the world.
“Lolita is a really special alpaca,” said Dee Milton, manager of Kensington Prairie Farm.
“You don’t see that many alpacas that live past 20.”
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Lolita came to Kensington Prairie as a rescue at the age of 19.
Farm staff had seen a number of alpacas on a neighbouring property that weren’t being regularly shorn — a health hazard given the wooly fiber they grow, which can accumulate up to 10 pounds.
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“They are really prone to heat stress and a lot of other not very kind body condition issues,” Milton said.
When the farm reached out, inviting them to a shearing event, the owners instead offered to surrender them.
“They were pretty skinny, I think they didn’t have adequate nutrition, but a lot of time with our rescues it’s not a malicious thing, sometimes it’s just knowledge,” Milton said.
“We were able to nurse her back to health, and she’s been thriving ever since on our farm.”
Life has been good for Lolita since then. She’s pampered with the best foods and gets special haircuts to accommodate the thinner fibre the old girl produces.
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But it was only recently that the farm staff got to wondering just how special she is.
“We knew she was old, she kind of gets special care, she’s put in a special pen where she gets extra nutrition, and we just decided to look it up one day, who is the oldest alpaca in the world, and the oldest alpaca listed in the Guiness Book of World Records is younger than our Lolita,” Milton siad.
“So we thought, ‘Hey! We should take a chance at going for this title.”
The current record holder is a lovable but grumpy old man named Hawthornden Wainui, who lives in New Zealand and was born on Jan. 2, 1998.
Milton says Lolita has him beat, with a birthday of Sept. 20, 1997, and the microchip to prove it.
While being a certified world record holder will come with bragging rights, Milton says the title carries another kind of meaning as well.
“I think it’s a demonstration of how well we treat our animals,” she said.
“If they’re given the adequate love and attention and everything that they need, they really can thrive past their expectancy.”
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