Vicuna
| Vicuna | ||||||||||||
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Vicuñas in Northern Chile |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Vicugna vicugna | ||||||||||||
| ( Molina , 1782) |
The vicuna ( Vicugna vicugna ) or vicuña ( Quechua : wik'uña ) is one of the two species of the genus Vicugna , along with the alpaca, and belongs to the camel family . It is similar to the guanaco , but is smaller and slimmer.
Characteristics, behavior
Its head body length is 150 centimeters, the shoulder height 100 centimeters, the weight 50 kilograms. An anatomical peculiarity compared to other New World camels are the lower incisors, which, like in rodents, constantly grow back - there is nothing comparable among other artifacts .
The fur is much finer than that of related species and so dense that it acts as an insulating layer against the cold. It is light brown on the back and whitish on the underside.
Like the guanaco, the vicuna lives in territorial family associations, each led by a stallion (males, the females are called mares). There are also bachelor parties (males who are not yet able to defend territory because of their young age) and solitary old males (who have been driven away from their associations by younger males).
distribution
The vicuna is widespread in the high Andes of Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia , Argentina and Chile . It occurs here at altitudes between 3500 and 5500 meters.
While there were around 1.5 million vicunas in the Andes during Inca times , their number had dropped to 6,000 by 1965. Since then, as a result of protective measures, the population has recovered rapidly, so that there are around 200,000 vicunas again today. The stud book within the framework of the European Conservation Breeding Programs (EEP) is kept by Christian R. Schmidt from the Frankfurt Zoo . The IUCN now lists the vicuna as "not endangered".
Relationship and Taxonomy
The classic doctrine used to be that the vicuna was never domesticated and that the llama and alpaca are descended from the guanaco. Today, however, there are DNA examinations that suggest that the alpaca could have descended from the vicuna. Since alpacas, llamas, guanacos and vicuñas are mutually fertile and the lines have often mixed with one another, the ancestry of the domestic animals can no longer be traced with absolute certainty.
The vicuna is often also carried under the scientific name Lama vicugna , i.e. together with the lamas in a common genus. The peculiarity of the dentition, which differs from the other llamas, speaks for its own genus. However, guanacos and vicuñas are mutually fertile, which in turn suggests a very close relationship. Therefore the introduction of the own genus Vicugna as well as the classification of the alpacas in this genus are controversial.
use
The Inca drove tens of thousands of vicuñas into gates , shaved the wool for the exclusive use of high nobles and then released the animals again. The Spaniards did not continue this tradition. They shot down vicunas in large numbers and often poisoned their watering holes, first to make room for pastureland and only later because of the fur. Nowadays vicunas are under species protection. In Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, they are kept free-range in national parks for commercial use, and less often in extensive enclosures (especially in Argentina). In 2009, 5,500 to 6,000 kilograms of vicuna wool were extracted worldwide.
With traditional shearing ( Chacu or Chaccu ) in Peru, vicuna herds are driven into pens and sheared every two years in a ceremony over funnel-shaped gates . A wool with an average fiber length of 2-4 cm is obtained. The weight of shorn wool is around 250 g to 450 g per animal. After removing the unwanted outer hair from the wool (around 30%), a few ounces remain, which are traded for around 7-15 euros per ounce. The hair of the abdominal area forms a smaller part, which is significantly lighter and accordingly achieves higher prices, as the structure of the vicuña hair suffers from bleaching or coloring . Northern populations have a more cinnamon-like coat color on the back, while southern populations have a beige color.
The wool of the vicuñas is considered to be the rarest and most expensive in the world. At Christmas 2010, the fashion company Falke offered sweaters made of vicuna wool for around 2400 euros and stockings for 860 euros the pair. Fabrics are also woven from vicuna wool, which are processed into expensive and exclusive bespoke clothing.
fiber
The woolen hair of the vicuna used to make vicunja wool is, after that of the chiru, one of the finest animal hairs with a hair diameter of 10–20 micrometers, but mostly an average of 8–13 or 11–13.5 micrometers. Among the animal textile fibers, only the various silks and byssus have a smaller fiber diameter. The surface structure of the fiber is flaky like sheep's wool . The scale distance is between 7 and 14 scale rings per 100 micrometers. The cell arrangement of the fiber is bilateral in the transmission electron microscope (as in the guanaco ), while in the llama and alpaca it is disordered.
literature
- Iain Gordon: The Vicuña. Springer Science & Business Media, 2008, ISBN 978-0-387-09475-5 .
Web links
- Vicugna vicugna in the Red List of Endangered Species of the IUCN 2015. Posted by: G. Lichtenstein u. a., 2008. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- Storm-tested camel of the Andes
Individual evidence
- ↑ For the spellings cf. Duden online: Vicuna and Vicuña
- ↑ Simon Hillson: Teeth. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-521-83701-9 , p. 143.
- ↑ a b Miguel Angel Gardetti: Handbook of Sustainable Luxury Textiles and Fashion. Springer, 2015, ISBN 978-9-812-87633-1 , p. 107.
- ↑ a b c d e Carol Ekarius: The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-603-42764-7 , pp. 381-382.
- ^ A b Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu, Miguel Angel Gardetti: Sustainable Fibers for Fashion Industry. Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-9-811-00522-0 , p. 20.
- ↑ Kirsten M. Silvius: People in Nature. Columbia University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-231-50208-5 , p. 164.
- ↑ BBC: How Peru's 'Andean rodeo' is helping save the vicuna. In: BBC News. (2010). Retrieved January 21, 2013.
- ↑ Katherine Gumiel Conzelmann: Dyeing Effects on Physical Properties of Vicuña & Other Luxury Specialty Fibers. 2015, ISBN 978-1-339-26038-9 .
- ↑ Falke Vicuna - A touch of luxury press release, December 2010
- ↑ HK Rouette: Encyclopedia of textile finishing. Woodland, Cambridge 2001, ISBN 1-84569-065-6 .
- ^ Menachem Lewin: Handbook of Fiber Chemistry, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. CRC Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-824-79471-2 , p. 403.