Vicuña
Lama vicugna
- Class
- Mammal
- Rarity
- Common
- Observations
- 2,160
- Most observed in
- 🇨🇱 Chile
Description
The vicuña (Lama vicugna) or vicuna (both , very rarely spelled vicugna, its Latin specific name) is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes; the other camelid is the guanaco, which lives at lower elevations. Vicuñas are relatives of the llama, and are now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their coats. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal can be shorn only every three years and has to be caught from the wild.
Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “Vicuña”.