The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is a wild South American camelid, whose domesticated form is
the alpaca It is cinnamon colored on the back and white on the underside, with a tuft of long hairs.
and white on the chest.
It lives in the puna above 3500 meters above sea level from Peru to Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. In Ecuador it was reintroduced at the end of the 20th century with specimens from Peru and Chile.
They live in family groups with a dominant male and an average of 6 females. The young are expelled
of the family group at 8 or 9 months of age.
The vicuña is the national symbol of Peru, It is a species that was in danger of extinction in the 1970s and today, thanks to the efforts of conservation, there are more than 200,000 individuals, not considered at risk. However, there are laws that protect this species.
Vicuñas are the smallest camelids, weighing between 40 and 50 kg (kilograms) and having a length of 80 cm (centimeters). They are wild. Its color is beige or vicuña (light reddish brown) on the back, white in the central area and the legs, with variations depending on the geographical areas where they live. Northern populations are darker and have a front tuft of long white hairs (pectoral tuft). Vicuñas have long, thin legs, ending in pads, suitable for walking on various types of soil, including rocky ones. The fiber of its wool is among the finest in the world, measuring 15 µm (micrometers) in diameter.
The coat is dense, made up of thin fibers that grow close together, with the aim of protecting the animal from both the cold and the rain and wind. If the fibers were thicker and grew farther apart, they would let cold air and rainwater through.