The Vicuña is an artiodactyl mammal and the smallest species of South American camelids. It inhabits the plains of the high Andes, mainly in Peru. Therefore, being the country that welcomes more specimens, this animal is a Peruvian national symbol, it is even represented in the national coat of arms. This camelid is divided into two subspecies; the northern vicuña and the southern vicuña. In this article we will tell you everything about this animal.
Characteristics of the Vicuna
This animal has a characteristic beige color and sometimes, as its name indicates, vicuña color on the back (light reddish brown). On the other hand, the central area of ​​its body, the legs and the face are white. The shades of these colors can vary depending on the region where the vicuña lives. The northern subspecies is darker than the southern subspecies and has a tuft of long white hair on the chest area.
The body of the vicuña is slim and stylized compared to that of its relatives, the alpacas and guanacos. In fact, many years ago it was believed that this animal was the wild ancestor of the alpaca, but today it is considered that alpacas and llamas are descendants of the guanaco. The head of this camelid is small and wedge-shaped; delicate and pointed ears; and large, forward-facing eyes. Also, these are framed with thick tabs that prevent the entry of dust and sand.
The neck of this animal is elongated and pale orange, as are its legs, which lack hooves and instead have pads. This anatomical adaptation allows them to walk on almost any type of ground, even on rocky terrain. Its peculiar walk, in which only the soles of the feet and not the fingers are used, influences a better grip when it comes to being in areas with many rocks and gravel.
Its body is covered with a dense, silky and uniform fur of a reddish brown tone on the upper part, beige on the sides and white on the chest and neck area. The wool of the chest area is longer than that of the rest of its body, even reaching about 30 centimeters in length. The fiber of its wool is considered one of the finest in the world, with around 15 microns in diameter, much less than half the size of human hair. These fibers grow very close together in order to protect the animal from the cold, rain and wind.
Subspecies
There are two subspecies of this animal; the southern or southern vicuña (Vicugna vicugna vicugna) and the southern or Peruvian vicuña (Vicugna vicugna mensalis). The first subspecies resides in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, and the second inhabits Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Although this animal is also found in the Andean highlands of Ecuador, this is because the vicuña was introduced to that country in 1988 with the help of Peru, Chile, and Bolivia, nations that delivered specimens from their own population.
Distribution and habitat
This camelid is present in the South American region, it is native to Peru, Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. As mentioned above, it was introduced in Ecuador several decades ago, since its conservation status was quite vulnerable. Between 1998 and 1999 hundreds of specimens arrived in Ecuador from Peru, Bolivia and Chile. Since then, from the donated vicuñas, the Ecuadorian population has been recovering.
The natural distribution of the vicuña covers the Andes mountain range in Ecuador, in the central Sierra, and in southern Peru, where the largest population of this species resides. In Bolivia, vicuñas inhabit the moors located in the west of the country, at about 3.600 and 4.800 meters of altitude. It also lives in the north of Chile in the regions of Arica and Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo and in the northeast of Argentina, in the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes and Chaco.
This animal inhabits the entire Andean Altiplano, an extensive high plain. In these mountainous areas the vegetation is low and is classified into six types: swampy tundra, prairies, halophilous, support cacti, shrub steppes, herbaceous steppes, and shrub steppes with tolars (plants). The vicuña has the ability to resist elevations of almost five thousand meters in height, due to its large heart and hemoglobin blood cells that allow it a greater affinity to capture oxygen.
Likewise, vicuñas enjoy semi-arid climates, climates that are characterized by being dry and hot during the day but cold at night, temperatures are usually positioned below 0ºC. Despite the fact that they live in areas where the environment is very dry, unlike other camelids such as the camel, the vicuña does need to drink water daily, therefore it must live near bodies of water.
Food
The feeding of this animal is based on an exclusively herbivorous diet. However, it is a bit complicated to know specifically what the vicuña eats, since in its habitat the vegetation is quite sparse. In fact, various scientific studies have attempted to identify the types of plants on which it feeds, by observing the state of the plants once ingested or by analyzing their droppings, but there is still no conclusive information.
Despite this, the vicuña is quite selective when it comes to its diet. It feeds on perennial plants, it also has an anatomical adaptation of its snout that allows it to select young grasses from among the strongest shoots. These herbs that it gets under the stones, it cuts and chews thanks to its incisor teeth, which, like rodents, grow throughout their lives.
These camelids feed in groups, often on the remains left by other animals. Once they have done so, they move on and scatter. Vicuñas avoid any conflict with other species over feeding areas at all costs. Sometimes specimens can be seen licking carbonate rocks, which are rich in salts. Vicuñas also drink salt water, although they can go several days without drinking water, their body does need salt.
The feeding territories are protected by the adult males, and some of the areas are special for the females that are in the reproductive period. These territories of approximately 184 hectares are cared for by the vicuñas through regular grazing, thus favoring the renewal of green areas. All the specimens, after ingesting the food, tend to ruminate in a state of rest.
Behavior
The vicuñas have a behavior similar to that of their relatives the guanacos, they are gregarious animals, that is, they tend to live grouped in herds. Their social organization could be classified as follows; family groups, bachelor groups and solitary males. These family groups are made up of a leading male, between 3 and 15 females and a few offspring or young specimens. In addition, they are very shy and quiet animals. However, they can occasionally be quite territorial. Vicuña males protect their territories by fighting.
Between the borders of the territories of each family there are several bosteaderos (accumulation of herd droppings), which, together with the presence of the male leader of the herd, are signs that prevent intruders from approaching. Many times these bosteaderos also function as a playback signal. In this way the males distinguish if a female is in heat in her territory, since her urine has a rather peculiar smell.
If this reproductive process is carried out, mothers have the ability to become pregnant again a week after delivery. The mothers can support and feed two young at the same time, the one that is gestating in her womb and the one that has already given birth, which requires that they breastfeed for the first eight months of life. Therefore, the females that make up these family groups spend most of their time eating, to nourish themselves and their young.
The societies of the vicuñas are extremely rigid and closed, they do not allow any other individual to enter their herd, they remain together throughout the year and are almost never separated from the others. For this reason, there are large groups of bachelors and solitary males, since males that are already adults, and have never been able to join a group of females with young, decide to group together.
These camelids rest on hillsides and slopes, because they try to go unnoticed as much as possible by their predators, they also try not to share the same feeding areas and habitat. Because of this, they have developed an incredible ability to hear, as soon as he feels that his pack is in danger, the leading male will emit a signal to alert the others. They have the ability to run up to 50 kilometers per hour to escape their predators.
The vicuñas have the peculiarity of settling in two territories. They spend the nights on dry slopes and during the day they go down to the swamps, grasslands and plains to socialize and feed. This peculiar routine makes it one of the few animals that choose two different and autonomous territories, one for resting and the other for feeding. Both zones usually have a strip of land that divides them but also distinguishes them from the lands of other herds.
During their rest period, they are exposed to low temperatures at night. However, the vicuñas have the ability to withstand it thanks to the heat from the sunlight they have received during the day, which has been stored in their skin and keeps them warm at night. Likewise, these family groups of vicuñas have wallows in their territories in which they dust the fiber of their wool, thus preventing it from becoming more fluffy than usual.
Reproduction
Vicuñas are viviparous mammals, that is, whose embryo is developed inside the mother's uterus for a long time, there it is fed with the necessary nutrients to grow until it is time to give birth. The courtship of this camelid can be considered quite primitive, since the excited male tries to chase the female until she is tired, pushes her and even bites her, forcing her to lie down on the ground, at that moment is where it takes place. the mating.
This pre-intercourse process gives the impression that the male forces the sexual act. For this reason, intercourse is performed with the female kneeling or lying down, rarely with the female standing. In the same way, this can also be prevented, there are remote cases where the female does not want the sexual act to happen at all and rejects the approach of the male, running away and kicking back.
A very particular characteristic of this species when it comes to reproduction is that the leading male of the family group mates with all the sexually mature females that make it up. The female vicuñas reach this sexual maturity after 14 months of age, however, they do not procreate until they are 2 or 3 years old. On the other hand, the males of this species reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age, but do not form a family until they are 3 or 4 years old.
Generally mating will occur between the months of March and April. Despite this, the breeding season may vary depending on the region where the herd is located. For its part, the gestation period usually lasts about 11 months, approximately 330 days. The most common is that the mother gives birth to a single calf, but eventually a female can have 2 newborns during childbirth.
Almost all of these births occur during the rainy season, between February and April. In addition, these calves are born in the morning, which allows them to be dry by the afternoon and ready to face the hail storms that are regularly daily. The females of this species have the ability to go into heat shortly after giving birth, therefore they breed every year. These young vicuñas feed on their mother for about 10 months, but remain in this herd until they are 18 months old.
The mother takes her young to higher ground for the first two weeks of its life, a practice they follow to stay as far away as possible from potential predators. Once they reach four months old, the young vicuña spends much of its day playing with other young from neighboring territories. Although the males protect their territories from intruders, the young are free to cross territorial boundaries. In this way, the inexperienced vicuñas learn about the social dynamics of the species with complete freedom.
Also at 4 months, his wool begins to change from a light brown color to a more reddish tone and long white hairs begin to grow in the chest area. At 7 months, the male regularly leaves his territory to join a pack full of bachelors. These strong and healthy celibate males will fight with the dominant males of other harems to take their position and take charge of the pack. The fate of the females is different, since they are expelled from the harem at one year of age and join groups made up of pure males, waiting to form another.
Types of handling
There are two main ways to breed and obtain the wool of this animal. The first is the wild or free, this consists of the capture of vicuñas that are in a state of freedom. From there, an ancient technique called Chaco is used, a way of capturing vicuñas used by the Incas. In it, a large number of people hold ropes with colorful ribbons, which are used to build some kind of barriers distributed throughout the highlands where they live.
The barriers are made with 2-meter-high poles and have a net outside them, so they can be dismantled and can be taken to different areas to carry out the same procedure. The length of these barriers is approximately 1 kilometer, they also function as funnels, since as they get narrower, they help the vicuñas enter the pens that are at the end.
In this harmless hunting method, all those who participate must have a lot of coordination among themselves so that no vicuña can escape. Just after all the specimens are captured, some of them begin to be sheared, for example those with wool longer than 4 cm, but trying not to do so with the young or with the mothers that are in advanced stage of pregnancy. In addition to this, they are examined to assess their health status through blood samples or stool samples, after these tests they are released back into their natural habitat.
Generally, in this method, the profits obtained from the sale of the animal's wool go to the communities near the areas where the vicuñas live or to those who have participated in the capture. Although no harm is done to the animal, they can be slightly disturbed during the capture. Likewise, this way of using vicuñas is the only possible way in Bolivia. In some localities of Peru, Chile and Argentina it is used but it is not so common.
On the other hand, there is a second way of being raised, in captivity or locked up. However, in this there are two types of captivity; in the former they are kept in fairly large pens of around 1000 hectares or in very small ones such as in Argentina, where they are approximately 10 hectares in size. Even though many call the first type semi-captivity because it has more space, any type of management that does not allow the animal to move freely is classified as captivity.
When free movement of these animals is restricted, confrontations between males from family groups and males from celibate groups are very frequent, all are very reactive in any situation that may make them uncomfortable. This is because in their natural habitat bachelor packs are often far removed from family groups. Therefore, to prevent fights from happening, one group must be separated from the other or they can also be castrated.
These pens, whether very small or very large, have a high cost when they are created, since the fences must be about 2 meters high. Similarly, these pens often do not have areas that allow the vicuñas to feed adequately, since they do not have leafy pastures or areas to constantly drink water. Although this method also benefits many people, the animal is harmed since the biology of the species is being interfered with.
State of conservation
The conservation status of the vicuña is in the category of "Least Concern" on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This category appears in Appendices I and II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as in Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS or Bonn Convention), to except for the Peruvian communities listed in Appendix II.
In ancient times, this species reached a population of more than three million. However, during the Inca period, vicuñas began to be captured to obtain their wool and use it to create clothing. The Inca society had a kind of "method" in which they tried to protect the welfare of this animal and its population, in which a maximum limit of specimens was established for hunting. In addition, only royalty could use their wool for clothing, it was totally forbidden for the average citizen to wear coats made from vicuña wool.
As the years passed, the demand for vicuña wool fiber increased, as did excessive hunting and the decline in its abundant population. The conservation status went from being favorable to extremely worrying, since with the arrival of the Spanish conquerors to South American territories, they were in charge of using other methods different from those used by the Incas, such as the use of firearms to catch them and facilitate the export of hundreds of copies to Europe.
Excessive hunting caused a fairly significant decline in vicuña populations, with very low rates during the 1969s. In this decade, these animals were hunted to near extinction. In 10, the population would have been reduced to approximately 1974 thousand copies. By 6.000, there were only about XNUMX copies left worldwide.
Because of this, in 1979 the five South American countries where vicuñas live; Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia signed an agreement called the Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña. The Andean communities affected by this problem were the most favored of said agreement. Since then, the affected regions have created protected areas in order to guarantee their conservation.
Thanks to these conservation efforts between nations, where commitments were made through rules and regulations to stop the indiscriminate hunting of the species, the increase in the vicuña population was constantly increasing. Resulting in 200.000 copies in less than thirty years. Today, the population already exceeds 350.000 vicuña specimens, in such a way that the species is no longer classified as an endangered animal.
Each government developed a different action plan for its conservation. Bolivia, for example, supports the use of vicuña wool by local communities, as long as after it has been sheared it is released back into its natural habitat, this country uses the type of management known as wild. On the other hand, Argentina uses the second type, in which they are kept captive, often causing a negative effect on the ecosystem. These efforts to preserve the species have brought about an extraordinary resurgence of the vicuña.
Similarly, the loss of its natural habitat is another cause that causes considerable losses of specimens. Overgrazing means that feeding areas do not have enough time to recover and flourish. Likewise, human activities such as mining, contamination of bodies of water or climate change can cause detrimental effects on the vicuña's ecosystem. The human being has even added a new threat to the map, this is the creation of a hybrid between an alpaca and a vicuña, called pacovicuña.
Although several laws and initiatives have been implemented for its conservation and the indices have recovered, all these threats mentioned above can cause the problem to happen again. The state of conservation will only have a hopeful panorama if the measures given by the governments are followed. The vicuñas are the spirit and the heart of the Andean highlands, therein lies the importance of caring for and preserving the species.
Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña
The vicuña is one of the few species that has been found to be in danger of extinction and has received considerable attention worldwide, a situation in which many nations have cooperated with each other to prevent its extinction. Since 1900, in the Republic of Bolivia there are laws for the protection of this species, but it was not until 1969 that the other countries where vicuñas live, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador decided to form an agreement in which all the republics established strict measures on the indiscriminate hunting of this animal.
However, from that agreement, ten years later it was decided to modify the rigid position of the aforementioned countries to a more flexible one, because it could be legal to take advantage of the species as long as it is only about shearing live specimens, never liquidate them for commercial purposes. These countries, in order to continue promoting the preservation and good management of the vicuña, renewed the Convention for the Conservation and Management of the Vicuña, in which a large number of terms were specified.
The signatory governments of the agreement agreed that the conservation of the vicuña would mean an economic benefit for the local community through the commitment that it would be gradually exploited, in addition to the fact that they would be under the rigorous and continuous observation of the State. In this way, the correct methods would be applied to manage the wild fauna of the Andean highlands, the competent official organisms are the ones that would be in charge of said matter.
Likewise, these governments prohibited the illegal hunting and commercialization of this species, as well as any product derived from its wool throughout the territory of the corresponding countries. In this agreement, any person is deprived of the internal and external commercialization of the vicuña, unless it is previously authorized and under the strict control of the government. The transformation of the wool fiber to fabrics or clothes can only be sold through prior coordination with the Administrative Technical Commission of said agreement.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora held in Washington, USA in 1973, prohibited the export and import of vicuñas that are in fertile periods, as well as their semen or other reproductive material. Those materials that are intended for some of the member countries of the agreement for research or repopulation purposes are excepted.
Similarly, all countries faithfully committed themselves to promoting and improving the development of parks, reserves and other protected areas where large populations of vicuñas live. Likewise, the repopulation areas under the management and control of the State must be expanded, so that the species will be prevented from being classified again as an animal in danger of extinction.
The management of vicuñas in all these countries, even today, have specific regulations to guarantee their conservation, all of which are governed by the National Program for the Sustainable Use of Vicuña. Currently the vicuña populations are divided into 3 types of areas; the protected ones, those of use and in which no type of management is carried out. Despite this, vicuña wool is also often harvested in protected areas.
In several of these countries the use of the fiber is only authorized to the Vicuña Management Communities, no person who does not belong to these communities has the power to shear a specimen of this species. However, wild-type management does not fully guarantee the sustainability of the species, in several localities they focus only on obtaining wool, without observing the state of health of the animal, an erroneous practice, since the animal represents more than an economic benefit, this is a living being and has an important value for the ecosystem of the region.
Marketing of Vicuña fiber
In the five Andean countries where this animal resides; Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador, in which there is less quantity, there are certain measures for the use of their wool. After many years of discussions about the future of this South American camelid, a consensus was reached through the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), appearing in "Appendix II" of the convention the authorization of the commercialization of vicuña fiber obtained from live specimens.
Despite the fact that the law stipulates in all these countries that the fiber can only be obtained from the shearing of live specimens, none of them is spared from the problematic poaching. Many illegal hunters have been responsible for dismembering the Andean population of vicuñas for economic purposes, since vicuña wool is one of the finest in the world, only preceded by the wool of the Tibetan antelope. Vicuña wool is made up of tiny and delicate fibers that have a diameter of around 12 microns, which are intertwined with each other and manage to isolate the air.
In Peru the export of this animal is prohibited. However, the international sale of textile products made with this fiber is permitted and promoted by the State, as is the export of unprocessed wool, but only in a regulated manner. The vicuñas in this country are owned by the local communities, these are the only ones that receive any economic benefit with the help of the Communal Committees of the Vicuña.
In the case of Bolivia, the communities do not own the animal, but rather receive the profits obtained from the sale of the wool. In addition, Bolivia is the only country that manages vicuñas in the wild, unlike the rest of the nations that manage them in captivity and in the wild. In Chile and Argentina the property of these animals is nothing more than the government. Even in Argentina from the MACS Project (Management of Wild Camelids) was that the sustainable use of this animal began, before only vicuñas were used in captivity.
As in ancient times, where only royalty used garments made with vicuña wool, today the use of this fiber is exclusive to wealthy people. This is due to the fact that few are the ones who have the luxury of buying a product made with the fiber of vicuña wool. By 2007, a meter in the European specialized market could cost around three thousand dollars.
For this reason, the regular buyers of these textile products or unprocessed wool are the large haute couture brands with great international recognition, such as the French or Italian ones. These firms produce made-to-measure garments solely from vicuña wool. Similarly, some of these European textile industries import wool from South American countries to later process it with wool from other animals.
With these textiles many garments are made, such as; stockings, shawls, sweaters, coats, among others. Likewise, some pieces for the home are also manufactured, such as blankets and quilts. A scarf made with 500 grams of vicuña fiber fabric costs around $2.500. On the other hand, a large coat made by a renowned European tailor can fetch $21.
All types of fiber management, as well as its production and marketing, have their advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, there are the economic benefits for the gross domestic product of all these countries. According to the National Service of Protected Natural Areas of Peru, local communities have been greatly benefited by the use of vicuña wool for commercial purposes. The communities produce 1.300 kilograms of fiber per year, which means an income of more than 500.000 euros per year.
Despite this, social equity also plays a determining role in the disadvantages, since not all regions work like Peru, some regions where the vicuña lives are not benefited, but their leaders and public agencies. Likewise, sometimes the biodiversity of nations is affected because people see them as nothing more than products and keep them in captivity. People's mentality must be changed, a live animal is much more valuable than a dead one. A vicuña can live up to 12 years with the necessary care.
Conclusions
As mentioned above, vicuñas are members of the Camelidae family, a family of artiodactyl mammals of the suborder Tilopoda. There are currently three members in South America; the guanaco (Lama Guanacoe), the llama (Lama Glama) and the alpaca (Lama pacos). This is the smallest species of all camelids, the vicuña weighs close to 40 kilograms and is around 90 centimeters tall.
Like all other South American camelids; they have a long neck with great flexibility, slender legs, long paws without hooves, and huge round eyes. Its dense and fine vicuña-colored wool helps it withstand the cold nights of the Andean highlands. In addition, they have anatomical adaptations that allow them to resist high altitudes, over 3.000 meters high, where drought is often constant.
The vicuña is a herbivorous animal, designed to travel great distances in search of food. It has two territories to live in, one during the day to feed and the other at night to rest. It is speculated, though not yet proven, that the alpaca is the domesticated descendant of the wild vicuña. According to hypothesis this is a consequence of selective breeding around 6.000 years ago.
Being normally wild animals, they live in small family groups led by a territorial male, who cares for and protects other dominant males or predators from entering their territory to harm the females and young of the herd. Vicuñas are viviparous mammals, females have a gestation period that usually lasts about 11 months, where the baby develops until the moment of birth. Vicuna mothers give birth to a single calf.
These animals are very communicative with each other, they have the ability to signal each other through body postures, subtly moving their ears or tail. They have a vocalization mechanism that allows them to alert the other members of the herd to the possible threat of a predator, this warning signal consists of a high-pitched screech. Also, sometimes they emit a kind of buzz to greet each other or guttural noises to convey anger or fear.
If this article has been to your liking, do not leave without first reading:
Characteristics of Wild Animals