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Vicuna
For the city in northern Chile, see Vicuna, Chile
The vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) is one of 2 wild South American camelids, along with the guanaco, which live in the high alpineous areas of the Andes. It is a relative of the llama and the alpaca. Vicunas produce small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal can only be shorn every 3 years. When knitted together, the product of the vicuna's fur is very soft and warm. It is understood that the Inca raised vicunas for their wool, and that it was against the law for any but royalty to wear vicuna garments.
Both under the rule of the Inca and today, vicunas have been protected by law. Before being declared endangered in 1974, only about 6,000 animals were left. Today, the vicuna have recovered to about 125,000 but organizations such as the IUCN and the U.S. Department of the Interior still consider it endangered.
Description
The vicuna is considered more delicate and graceful than the guanaco, and smaller. Although their coats may look thin, they are made up of insulating hairs that are softer and warmer than any other animal. Its long, woolly coat is tawny brown on the back while the hair on the throat and chest is white and quite long. The head is slightly shorter than the guanaco's and the ears are slightly longer. The length of head and body ranges from 1.45 to 1.60 m (about 5 ft); shoulder height from 75 to 85 cm (around 3 ft); weight from 35 to 65 kg (under 150 lb).
In order to prevent poaching there is a round up every year, and all vicunas with fur longer than 2-1/2 centimeters are shorn.
Distribution
Vicunas live exclusively in South America, primarily in the central Andes. They are most commonly found in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and northwest Argentina. Peru has the largest number. Bolivia has great number of wild vicunas in the Southwestern side of the country.
Habitat
Vicunas live in the grass lands and plains in the mountain regions at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,500 meters. There are many places they live but one usual place that you can find them in is the Andes Mountain in the grassy plains. In these areas, only nutrient poor tough bunch grasses and festuca grows. The sun's rays are able to penetrate the thin atmosphere producing relatively warm temperatures in the day; however, the temperatures go back to freezing at night. The vicuna's thick but soft coat is a special adaptation which traps layers of warm air close to its body so it can tolerate the freezing temperatures.
Behavior
The behavior of the vicuna is similar to that of the guanaco. Vicunas are very shy animals and are easily aroused by intruders, due among other things to their extraordinary hearing. Like the latter, it will frequently lick calcareous stones and rocks, which are rich in salt, and it will also drink salt water. Its diet consists mainly of low grasses which grow in clumps on the ground.
Vicunas live in family-based groups made up of a male, and 5 to 15 females and their young. Each group has its own territory of about 18km this can fluctuate depending on the availability of food.
Mating usually occurs in March-April, and after a gestation period of about 11 months the female gives birth to a single young which is nursed for about 10 days; the young becomes independent at about 12 to 18 hours. Young males will form bachelor groups and the young females search for a sorority to join. Along with preventing intraspecial competition, it also prevents inbreeding which can cause a population bottleneck in endangered species as observed with cheetahs.
Domestication
Until recently it was thought that the vicuna was not domesticated, and that both the llama and the alpaca were both descendants of the guanaco, a very closely related animal. But recent DNA research has shown that the alpaca may well have vicuna parentage. Today the vicuna is mainly wild, but the local people still perform special rituals with these creatures, including a fertilty ritual.
Vicuna fiber
The fiber is popular due to its warmth. Its warming properties come from the tiny scales that are on the hollow air filled fibers. It causes them to interlock and trap insulating air. At the same time, it is finer than any other wool in the world but since it is sensitive to chemical treatment, the wool is usually left in its natural color.
However, the vicuna will only produce about one pound of wool a year and gathering it required a certain process during the time of the Incas. Vicuna fibers were annually gathered through communal efforts called chacu. Here, hundreds of thousands of people would herd hundreds of thousands of vicuna into previously laid funnel traps. The animals would be sheared and then released and was only done every four years. The vicuna was believed to be the reincarnation of a beautiful young maiden who received a coat of pure gold once she consented to the advances of an old, ugly king. Because of this, it was against the law for anyone to kill a vicuna or wear its fleece, except for Inca royalty.
From the period of Spanish Conquest to 1974, there was unrestricted hunting of the vicuna and reducing its numbers to only 6,000 in the 1960s. As a result, the species was declared endangered in 1974 and its status prohibited the trade of vicuna fiber. In Andean Bolivia the Ulla Ulla National Reserve was founded in 1977 partly as a sanctuary for the species. Their numbers grew to 125,000 in Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Since this was a ready cash crop for community members, the countries relaxed regulations on vicuna fiber in 1993 enabling its trade once again. Although the recovery is somewhat comforting, these animals are still classified as vulnerable by the IUCN and endangered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
At present, the Peruvian government has a labeling system that identifies all garments that have been created through a government sanctioned chacu. This guarantees that the animal was captured, sheared alive, returned to the wild, and cannot be sheared again for another two years. The program also ensures that a large portion of the profits return to the villagers. However, annually up to 50,000 pounds of vicuna wool are exported as a result of illegal activities. Because of this, some countries have banned the importation of the fiber in order to save the animal. And although it is possible to commercially produce wool from domesticated vicunas, it is difficult because they tend to escape.
Current prices for vicuna yarns and fabrics can range from $1,800 to $3,000 per yard. Vicuna fiber can be used for apparel and home fashion (such as blankets and throws). A scarf costs around $1500 while a man's coat can cost up to $20,000.
Some studies indicate that many of the problems that this species face are due to the absence of property rights. In the case of Peru, while not being possible to freely buy and commercialize vicunas and vicuna fur, people do not have incentives to take care of these animals. Also, this legal prohibition creates a vicuna black-market where poachers kill the animals instead of herding them. Besides, the Peruvian government regulates all the herding and commercialization process, deciding even how the revenues must be spent by the villagers. Apparently that has turned them into the main vicuna poachers. Furthermore, the Inca technique of trapping vicunas called "chaku" is imposed by the Peruvian government as the only way of trapping these animals, making these process tremendously inefficient1.
References
Vicuna Fiber-Fiber & Product Info
The Vicuna Collection - The History of the Vicuna
Alpaca Fiber News - The vicuna animal
Vicunas: Bearers of the Golden Fleece
Bayly, Andres and Enrique Pasquel. Privaticemos las vicunas [*]
External links
1 Bayly, Andres and Enrique Pasquel. Privaticemos las vicunas [*]
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Vicuna
