The vicuña (pronounced ve-coon-ah) is a species native to the Andes mountain, intently related to the guanaco. The vicuña is part of the camel household, although 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 ancient vinuña domestication attempts.
Vicuñas occupy the grasslands of the central Andes mountains and are adapted to very high elevations. In actual fact, most vicuñas are found between 10,000 and 15,000 feet – higher than most mountains in many parts of the world. They spend their days feeding throughout the grassy plains. At night time, the herds move back into the hills.
Within the hills and mountainous areas, vicuñas are able to avoid a lot of their predators. They’re very nimble alongside rocky ridges, permitting them to evade less agile predators. Nonetheless, pumas are a significant predator of vicuñas, and pumas are more than capable of capturing prey among not sure footing.
Vicuña Wool – One of the World’s Most Costly Fabrics!
The fiber produced by the vicuña is extraordinarily valuable because of its extraordinarily soft and warm nature. Particular person wool fibers are a few of the finest in the animal kingdom – leading to one of the softest materials in creation when it is weaved together. The fabric is so costly that a suit jacket made of vicuña wool can value 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 might be scorching hot. The light color and airiness of vicuña wool make sure that the animals do not overheat. Nighttime within the Andes is a unique story, with temperatures usually dropping below freezing. Hole air pockets within the wool keep the organisms warm even in the face of freezing temperatures.
Part of the reason that the vicuña was revered by ancient 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 widespreadity. Via centuries of unregulated harvesting, the vicuña was almost extinct in the 1960s!
Interesting Insights from the Vicuña!
The vicuña is an enchanting species because of its wonderful adaptations, and in part because of the history humanity has skilled with the vicuña. While these are fascinating topics, the vicuña also displays a number of necessary ideas which can be important to all of biology!
Stopping Poaching – Shave the Vicuñas!
The conservation of vicuñas depends on a trick that can be helpful to many other endangered species. Within the Nineteen Seventies, the Peruvian government and a number of non-profit organizations teamed up to prevent the vicuña from going extinct. To do so required the assistance of the community and a big 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 Sixties, populations are actually well above 350,000! Conservationists working on other species have started adopting this technique, with related success. Rhinos and elephants in sure parks have their ivory tusks repeatedly shaved down, making the animals nearly worthless to a poacher. Typically, if the valuable part of an animal could be removed without hurt to the animal the strategy is ideal for reducing poaching.
Wool-Producing Animals
A wide range of animals produces wool – from sheep to llamas – however not all wool is the same. Wool from totally different species can have many different qualities, including its width, size, progress time, and ability to trap air pockets. Vicuña wool is extraordinarily fine and traps air wonderfully – but can take up to 2 years or more to grow out fully!
Most wool-producing animals advanced in environments with extreme temperature shifts. Wool traps heat when it is simply too cold and dissipates heat when things start getting too hot. This permits 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.
If you loved this posting and you would like to obtain additional details about this page kindly go to our internet site.