Alpacas, because of the growing popularity of their fleeces and tasty meat, are being smuggled out of Peru.

So the country has launched a campaign to implant microchips into the neck of pedigree alpacas to try to stop the sneaking of the animals across Peru’s borders.

The microchips, carrying identification codes to be be read by hand-held scanners, will help the government to keep track of the alpacas and preserve the gene pool of its three million-strong herd.

In BBC Technology.