The vicuna animal has the finest wool in the world. Find out why.
What animal has the finest wool on all the earth?
If you guessed the Llama, then think again. The alpaca? No, there is an animal with finer wool still. It is the vicuna. Never heard of it? You're not alone. The vicuna is a rare wild animal which sports hair less than half the diameter of the finest sheep's wool. It's wool is not just for show, however. Because it lives at an elevation of between 12,000 and 18,000 feet on the slopes of the Andes Mountains it needs that insulating coat. Up there, near the snow line the days are beautifully sunny but at night the temperatures plummet to many degrees below zero. Other areas of the Andes - especially on the western side - are dry deserts. With such inhospitable conditions it is a wonder that the vicuna survives at all.
The vicuna, however, is wonderfully designed for its habitat. The animal has blood that is so loaded with red cells that even at the high altitudes where it lives, the vicuna can run at thirty miles per hour (50 kilometers per hour). The vicuna also has an uncanny ability to survive without water. It has even been referred to as a cameloid because of it's likeness to a camel in it's ability to survive in arid conditions.
The vicuna gives birth in March and April. This is at the end of the rainy season - a time when food is plentiful. Births usually occur in the morning. This allows the baby time to dry out before the cold night comes. The mother goes off on its own and into labor for about half an hour. It will then give birth to a baby weighing about 14 pounds ( 6 kilograms). The mother does nothing to help the baby, not even licking it. The baby is at this stage vulnerable to the attack of the vicuna's most dangerous predator - the Andean Condor. Rain is the animal's worst enemy at the beginning stages of life. The coldness and the damp will slow the newborn down and make it an easy target for the condor.
If it can survive the first thirty minutes of life, the vicuna will be on it's feet and soon able to run faster than a full grown man. Poachers, however, have nearly exterminated the vicuna. They have even resorted to mowing the animals down with machine guns. Annually up to 50,000 pounds of vicuna wool are exported as a result of illegal activities. Some countries have now banned the importation of vicuna wool and skin in an effort to save the animal.
One thing that makes the wool of the vicuna so popular is it's warmth. All wool is warm because of tiny scales that are on the hollow air filled fibers that cause them to interlock and trap insulating air. Wool has the ability to absorb moisture to the extent of thirty percent of it's weight without feeling damp. As mentioned earlier, vicuna wool is finer than any other wool. That means that the wool is softer, lighter and warmer than any other wool on this earth. The fibers of vicuna wool are so sensitive to chemical treatment that the wool is normally used in it's natural golden color.
The vicuna will only produce about one pound of wool in a year. This is opposed to the alpaca which can give off fifteen pounds in a similar time period. This, of course, adds to the rarity of the wool. Still, it is possible to commercially produce wool from domesticated vicunas. This has, however, proved a most difficult task. The vicuna does not take readily to domestication. It will jump fences and attempt to return to the wild. If hemmed in it will do its utmost to avoid cooperating with it's owners. This has led to experiments at cross breeding the vicuna with the far more controllable alpaca. Results were initially promising. However, after just two or three generations, the offspring became sterile.
The wool of the vicuna, then, appears set to become an increasingly rare adornment as more and more countries impose measures to try and stop the decimation of this amazing animal.
