Vicuña

Name and taxonomy

The scientific name is Vicugna vicugna, though some authors now place it in Lama as Lama vicugna. It belongs to the camel family, Camelidae, in the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed hoofed mammals. Two subspecies are recognised: the northern mensalis of Peru and Bolivia and the southern vicugna of Argentina and Chile. GBIF lists the names Peruvian vicuña and Argentine vicuña for the two, and the Aymara call the animal huari. The English spelling vicuna, without the tilde, is common in the wool trade.

Evolution and relatives

South America has four camelids: the wild vicuña and guanaco, and the domestic alpaca and llama. For a long time both domestic species were treated as descendants of the guanaco. DNA work published in 2001 showed that the alpaca descends mainly from the vicuña, which is why the alpaca is now Vicugna pacos. The llama remains the domestic form of the guanaco.

Today the vicuña keeps to the highest Andes, but fossils show a wider past. In the late Pleistocene and early Holocene it lived in lowland Patagonia, as much as 3,500 kilometres south of its present range. Those lowland fossils were named Lama gracilis, but genetic and skeletal comparison suggests they are the same species. Remains also reach Uruguay and the Strait of Magellan, alongside the guanaco.

Appearance

Wikipedia gives a head and body length of 1.45 to 1.60 metres and a shoulder height of 75 to 85 centimetres. Animal Diversity Web gives a weight of 40 to 60 kilograms, with an average near 45 kg. Wikipedia widens the weight range to 35 to 65 kg. The vicuña is smaller and more slender than the guanaco, with a slightly shorter head and longer ears. The neck and legs are long, and the face is pale where the guanaco's is dark.

The back and sides carry a woolly coat of tawny brown, and the belly is off-white. White hair grows unusually long over the chest and throat, and it hangs as a bib. Fibre on the neck and belly grows longer to guard against the cold. Unlike the alpaca and llama, which come in many colours, the vicuña shows very little variation.

The lower incisors never stop growing, and they carry enamel on one side only, like a rodent's. The guanaco has better-developed incisor roots, one of the few skeletal differences between the two. Each fibre is hollow and covered in tiny scales that lock together and trap air.

Habitat and range

The vicuña lives only in the central Andes of South America. It is native to Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina. A small introduced population of about 2,000 animals has lived in central Ecuador since 1988. GBIF holds records from 12 countries, but that count includes zoos and stray records outside the range.

Its home is semi-arid grassland and plateau at 3,200 to 4,800 metres, and Animal Diversity Web gives 3,000 to 5,000. Only tough bunch grasses and Festuca grow there. The thin air lets the sun warm the day, but the nights fall to freezing. In the central Andes daytime temperatures average about 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. The thick, soft coat holds a layer of warm air against the skin.

Vicuñas graze the plains by day and move up to the slopes at night. They need to drink, since their food holds too little water, so they stay near streams and pools. Wikipedia gives a family territory of about 18 square kilometres, while an older field study found about 17 hectares per family. The second figure works out at about 3.4 hectares per animal, and territory size probably shifts with the food supply.

Diet and feeding

The vicuña is a herbivore and a generalist, and it eats more than half the plant species in its range. Grasses make up about 59 to 72% of the diet and shrubs about 16 to 19%. Two plants, a panicgrass and saltgrass, provide almost 50% of what it eats. Its main food is the low grass that grows in clumps close to the ground.

Like other camelids the vicuña chews the cud, and its gut handles tough, fibrous desert plants. It licks limestone rocks and drinks salty water for minerals. The ever-growing incisors crop grass close without wearing down. The grazed grasses regrow quickly, so heavy grazing does not lower their output.

Behaviour and social life

Vicuñas live in three kinds of group: family herds, bachelor herds and lone males. A family herd is one adult male, 5 to 15 females and their young. The male defends the territory all year, and he chases any intruder away. Young males join bachelor herds, and old males driven out of families live alone. Young females leave to find another family group, which limits inbreeding.

The animals are timid and easily alarmed, and their hearing is excellent. They are clean, and every member of a group leaves its dung in the same spot. A herd feeds on the plain by day and climbs to sleep at night, when pumas hunt. They keep to open meadows rather than canyons, where a puma can hide. When they run, their usual fast gait is the transverse gallop, which is common in large running mammals.

Communication and senses

The vicuña relies on sight and hearing, and its large ears show how much hearing matters to it. Its best-known call is the alarm, which the family male gives when he sees a threat. The call starts high and lasts about 4 seconds, and the male may repeat it. The rest of the herd moves off together, and the male follows at the rear. Every vicuña can give the alarm, but the male gives it most often.

During mating the male trembles his ears, flares his nostrils and flips his tail. Shared dung piles probably serve as scent marks that tell neighbours where a territory lies.

Reproduction and life cycle

Mating runs from January to April, with most activity in March and April. Some evidence suggests that vicuñas kept apart by sex will mate in any month. The female lies down, and the male straddles her and lies on her back. Copulation lasts 10 to 50 minutes. The resident male mates with the females of his territory, and he sometimes tries to herd females out of a neighbour's range.

Gestation lasts 330 to 350 days, about 11 months, with an average of 345 days. The female gives birth standing up to a single young, and she does not lick it. The young nurses for about ten months, and weaning falls between 6 and 10 months. The mother ends nursing by walking away, and she offers little defence if alarmed. The male's contribution is a safe territory where mothers and young can graze in peace.

Young become independent at 12 to 18 months and leave for bachelor or other family groups. Females mature at about 12 to 24 months, and males breed at closer to 3 years. Vicuñas live about 15 to 20 years, and the average is about 17. A record captive animal lived 31.6 years.

Predators and threats

The puma is the main predator. One study charged pumas with about 50% of calf deaths and 91% of adult deaths. The Andean fox, or culpeo, and domestic dogs also take vicuñas, and Andean condors scavenge the carcasses. A vicuña's first defence is to run, but it has been seen charging a condor or a dog. Birth weight decides much of a calf's chance of surviving its first year.

The biggest historical threat was hunting for wool, which came close to wiping the species out. Poaching continues today, along with habitat loss and competition with livestock for grass and water.

Population and conservation

The IUCN lists the vicuña as Least Concern, a status it reached in 2018. The global population is about 350,000 and rising. Peru holds the most, about 218,000 in a 2016 estimate, and Bolivia has the largest wild herds. Peru's count rose from 66,559 in 1994 to 118,678 in 2000 and 208,899 in 2012.

Hunting was unrestricted until 1964, and only about 6,000 animals were left in the 1960s. Peru set up the Pampa Galeras reserve in Ayacucho in 1965 and trained wardens to stop poachers. Bolivia and Peru signed a vicuña convention in La Paz on 16 August 1969, and Ecuador joined in 1976. A second treaty in Lima on 20 December 1979 allowed careful use once herds recovered, and Argentina joined in 1981. CITES trade rules took effect in 1975, and the species was declared endangered in 1974.

Numbers reached 125,000 across the four countries, and in 1993 the wool trade reopened under controls. In 2002 the United States moved most populations to threatened, but it still lists the Ecuador animals as endangered. The IUCN still backs active protection, education and recovery plans against poaching.

Relationship with humans

Vicuña wool is among the finest fibres in the world. It measures about 12 micrometres across, against 14 to 19 for cashmere and 8 to 12 for angora rabbit. The fibre goes into coats, suits, shawls, socks and blankets, and it sells for over 300 dollars a kilogram. Each animal gives only a small fleece, and it can be shorn only about every three years.

Communities such as Lucanas hold a chaccu each year: a round-up, a shearing and a release. The wool has become a cash crop for Andean villages, and the animals also draw tourists. In 2015 the luxury group LVMH claimed that its firm Loro Piana had saved the species. An Argentine government body estimated in 2022 that Andean communities receive about 3% of the value of the fibre chain.

Vicuñas do not harm people. They graze ranchland and compete with sheep and cattle for grass and water, which causes some conflict. Local opinion of the animal is mostly positive.

In culture and myth

The Inca prized vicuña wool above all others, and only royalty could wear it. Inca law protected the animals: they were driven into enclosures, shorn and set free rather than killed. That round-up, the chaccu, survives in Peru today. At Pampa Galeras it takes place on 24 June, when hundreds of people drive the herds into a fence with a long rope. An Inca-style ceremony and the scissors dance are held before the shearing, as a pledge to the gods for the fleece.

Andean villagers still hold a fertility rite with vicuñas. Peru made the vicuña its national animal. On the coat of arms, which dates from 25 February 1825, it represents the riches of the animal world. A cinchona tree stands for the plant world beside it, and a horn of plenty spilling coins stands for minerals.