The vicuña (pronounced ve-coon-ah) is a species native to the Andes mountain, closely associated to the guanaco. The vicuña is part of the camel household, though it is by far the smallest member. Compared to a guanaco, the vicuña is only about half the size, has a smaller tail, and finer wool. Home alpacas are likely to have originated from historic vinuña domestication attempts.
Vicuñas occupy the grasslands of the central Andes mountains and are adapted to very high elevations. In reality, most vicuñas are found between 10,000 and 15,000 toes – higher than most mountains in many parts of the world. They spend their days feeding all through the grassy plains. At night, the herds move back into the hills.
Within the hills and mountainous regions, vicuñas are able to keep away from a lot of their predators. They’re very nimble along rocky ridges, permitting them to evade less agile predators. Nonetheless, pumas are a serious predator of vicuñas, and pumas are more than capable of capturing prey among unsure footing.
Vicuña Wool – One of many World’s Most Expensive Fabrics!
The fiber produced by the vicuña is extremely valuable because of its extremely soft and warm nature. Particular person wool fibers are among the finest within the animal kingdom – leading to one of many softest materials in creation when it is weaved together. The material is so costly that a suit jacket made of vicuña wool can cost upwards of $20,000!
The fibers are designed to keep the animal comfortable in the highly variable setting of the Andes Mountains. Within the day, temperatures could be scorching hot. The light coloration and airiness of vicuña wool make sure that the animals don’t overheat. Nighttime in the Andes is a distinct story, with temperatures typically dropping below freezing. Hole air pockets within the wool keep the organisms warm even within the face of freezing temperatures.
Part of the reason that the vicuña was revered by historic Inca civilization was because of its fine wool. Only Incan royalty was allowed to wear the wool, as a sign of status and respect. When the Spanish conquistadors invaded South America, vicuña wool was taken back to Europe and grew in fashionableity. Through centuries of unregulated harvesting, the vicuña was almost extinct in the Sixties!
Interesting Insights from the Vicuña!
The vicuña is a fascinating species because of its amazing adaptations, and in part because of the history humanity has experienced with the vicuña. While these are fascinating subjects, the vicuña also displays a number of important ideas that are important to all of biology!
Stopping Poaching – Shave the Vicuñas!
The conservation of vicuñas depends on a trick that can be useful to many other endangered species. In the Nineteen Seventies, the Peruvian government and a number of non-profit organizations teamed up to stop the vicuña from going extinct. To do so required the help of the community and a large number of wool shears.
This approach helped get the vicuña off of the endangered species list! Although there have been as little as 6,000 vicuña within the 1960s, populations are now well above 350,000! Conservationists working on other species have started adopting this method, with comparable success. Rhinos and elephants in sure parks have their ivory tusks frequently shaved down, making the animals virtually priceless to a poacher. Typically, if the valuable part of an animal can be removed without hurt to the animal the tactic is ideal for reducing poaching.
Wool-Producing Animals
A wide range of animals produces wool – from sheep to llamas – but not all wool is the same. Wool from completely different species can have many various qualities, together with its width, size, development time, and ability to trap air pockets. Vicuña wool is extraordinarily fine and traps air wonderfully – however can take as much as 2 years or more to develop out fully!
Most wool-producing animals evolved in environments with severe temperature shifts. Wool traps heat when it is simply too cold and dissipates heat when things start getting too hot. This allows wool-producing animals to live in mountainous environments which have drastic temperature swings regularly. Wool is also covered in oils, which assist keep animals dry when it rains heavily.
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