IN a UK first, a young alpaca has given birth to twins – without her Hampshire owner even knowing she was pregnant.

Two-year-old Venus had her babies, known as crias, in less than an hour when owner Nikki Hayton popped to the shops.

Nikki, who farms the herd of 20 alpaca for their fleeces in the New Forest, had only bought Venus a month ago and had no idea she was expecting.

The animals are Suri alpacas ,which make up only about ten per cent of the UK’s alpaca population and are rare because of their high quality fleeces.

All Suri alpaca are recorded, and Venus is the first to have twins out of a UK population of 2,109.

Nikki, of Godshill, said: “This really is once in a lifetime you get to see alpaca twins. Nobody has them. If they do, there is little chance they survive the birth.”

Libby Henson of the British Alpaca Society, said: “It is amazing. Out of the 20,000 alpacas in the UK there have been seven sets of twins born but only three sets have survived.

“There is no record of Suri alpaca twins in the whole of the UK. It is extremely rare. I just hope they both hang-on in there but it is looking good at the moment."

Alpacas are pregnant for about 11 and a half months and can live for up to 20 years.

The herd animals, which look like llamas, originate from South America and have become popular to breed and keep as pets in the UK since the late 1990s.