Some natives of the Andes and the Aymara still worship the vicuna as a daughter of the fertility goddess Pachamama (Grizmek, 1990).
Perception Channels: tactile ; chemical
The vicuna is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, and as endangered by the USDI. During the period of the Incas, the total population reached 1.5 million. With the fall of the empire, the number dropped dramatically due to massive slaughter by the conquerors and the settlers. By 1960, the number decreased to only 6,000. Recent efforts of establishing national parks and organizations for protection of vicunas have brought the population back up to 125,000. About half of this number live at the Pampas Galeras National Vicuna Reserve in Peru. Nowak (1991), Grzimek (1990).
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Competition with domestic livestock.
In the past, vicunas were an important source of wool and meat. At the time of the Incas, vicunas were captured, shorn and released into the wild again. During 19th and 20th century, there was a huge commercial demand for the wool. Recent law only permits use of wool shorn from a living vicuna. Nowak (1991), Grizmek (1990).
The vicuna is strictly a grazer. Its diet consist of mostly short perennial grasses. The incisors are specially adapted to its diet. They are large and continuously growing as in rodents. The young often graze while lying down. Both young and adults chew cud when they are at rest. Unlike most other camelids, the vicuna requires daily intake of water. Therefore, when selecting a territory, it searches an area with favorable watering sites. The average feeding range is 184ha. Nowak (1991), Grizmek (1990), MacDonald (1984).
The current range of the vicuna lies in the Andes of southern Peru, western Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, and northern Chile (Nowak, 1991).
Biogeographic Regions: neotropical (Native )
Vicunas are found in semiarid rolling grasslands and plains at altitudes of 3,500-5,750 meters. These lands are covered with short and tough vegetation. Due to their daily water demands, vicunas live in areas where water is readily accessible. Climate in the habitat is usually dry and cold. Nowak (1991), Grizmek (1990).
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 20.0 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 24.8 years.
The vicuna is the smallest living species among the family Camelidae. Head and body length is 1,250-1,900 mm, tail length is 150-250mm, and shoulder height is 700-1,100mm. A slender body and relatively long neck and limbs give a vicuna an elegant appearance. The ears are long, pointed, and narrow. The head is round and yellowish to red-brown in color. The long neck has yellowish red bib. The underside and inner parts of the flanks are dirty white. A strange mane, 20-30cm long, with silky-white hair adorns the chest. Overall, the pelage is uniform and soft. Compared to the similar-looking Lama guanicoe, the vicuna is one fourth the size, its body is paler, and it lacks callosities on the inner sides of the forelimbs. Relative weight of the brain is greater than that of the guanaco. Among living artiodactyls, vicunas have unique, rodent-like incisors that are covered with enamel on only one side. Features believed to be adaptations to high altitudes include a large heart, specialized blood cells with hemoglobin of greater affinty for oxygen, and a weight that is 50 percent heavier than other mammals of the same size. Vision and hearing is good, although the former is far more developed. Olfaction is fairly poor. Nowak (1991), Grizmek (1990).
Range mass: 35 to 65 kg.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Mating begins in March and April. They mate while lying down on their chests, and copulation lasts 10-20 minutes. After 330-350 days of gestation period, a female gives birth to a single offspring of 4-6 kg in February and March. The female gives birth in a standing position, and it neither licks nor eats the afterbirth. The mother mates soon after giving birth. The young is mobile after just 15 minutes at birth. It remains close aside its mother for at least 8 months. It continues to suckle until it reaches 10 months. Young females at this stage are expelled from the herd by the dominant male. For young males, this happens at 4-9 months. Expelled females are usually accepted into another group. Females are capable of mating when they reach 2 years. Some are still reproductively active at 19 years. Vicunas in the wild live up to 15-20 years. In captivity, an individual was reported to have lived 24 years. MacDonald (1984), Nowak (1991), Grizmek (1990).
Key Reproductive Features: gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual
Average birth mass: 5740 g.
Average gestation period: 340 days.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 730 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 730 days.
