The Vicuña is now believed to be the wild ancestor of
domesticated alpacas. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine
wool, which is very expensive because the animal can only be shorn every 3
years.
When knitted together, the product of the vicuña's fur is very soft and warm.
It is understood that the Inca raised vicuñas for their wool, and that it was
against the law for any but royalty to wear vicuña garments. Both under the
rule of the Inca and today, vicuñas have been protected by law. Before being
declared endangered in 1974, only about 6,000 animals were left. Today, the
vicuña population has recovered to about 125,000, and while conservation
organizations have reduced its level of threat, they still call for active
conservation programs to protect population levels from poaching, habitat loss,
and other threats.
The vicuña is considered more delicate and graceful than the guanaco, and
smaller. Until recently it was thought that the vicuña was not
domesticated, and that both the llama and the alpaca were both descendants of
the guanaco. But recent DNA research has shown that the alpaca may well have
vicuña parentage.
The fiber is popular due to its warmth. Its warming properties come from the
tiny scales that are on the hollow air filled fibers. It causes them to
interlock and trap insulating air. At the same time, it is finer than any other
wool in the world but since it is sensitive to chemical treatment, the wool is
usually left in its natural color. However, the vicuña will only produce about
one pound of wool a year and gathering it required a certain process during the
time of the Incas. Vicuña fibers were annually gathered through communal
efforts called chacu. Here, hundreds of thousands of people would herd
hundreds of thousands of vicuña into previously laid funnel traps. The animals
would be sheared and then released and was only done every four years.
