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Vicugna vicugna
The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) or vicugna is one of two wild South American camelids, along with the guanaco, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes. It is a relative of the llama, and is now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their coat. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal can only be shorn every 3 years and has to be caught from the wild. When knitted together, the product of the vicuña's fur is very soft and warm. It is understood that the Inca valued vicuñas highly for their wool, and that it was against the law for any but royalty to wear vicuña garments.
Base of Andes Mountains, near Puna region, Argentina. Near many dirt roads, these animals look beautiful with the environment they inhabit. National animal of Peru.
15 Comments
Thank you Cindy! :)
Wonderful series!
Thanks again Francop1 :)
thanks you very much Jason
Beautiful!
Thank you very much Noel :)
Fantastic series Joshua!
Thank you isaella1 and manuelacid1 :)
Thank you Tic, Satyen, Stefania, and Mona for all of your kind comments. I appreciate it :)
Beautiful photographs..
Lovely series Joshua!
fantastic shot, very beautiful fauna
Thank you very much Yuko! :)
This is such a fantastic series!
One more photo added.