Thousands of years ago, among the rural mountain areas in the frigid cold of the high Andean plains, an animal species was born, and the Andean people knew that it would be the key to their survival.
Only with the help of the South American Camelids could the Andean man survive such extreme terrain.The animals´meat was used for food and their fiber was used to make their clothes.
Llamas, alpacas, guanacos and vicuñas are the "real" gold from los Andes.
The llamas were the source of warmth, transportation and food, while the vicuña was appreciated to such an extent that only the Inca and his nobles were allowed to use this marvelous fiber, the finest in the world, to design outfits and fabrics which are as soft as sunlight. This is a breed of animals that has been a fundamental part of Peruvian art and culture since the beginning of the history of the country.
Vicuña ( Vicugna Vicugna ) : Is the most graceful and scarce of the South American Camelids.It was on the verge of extinction, and today, after an intensive recovery program, it has gone back to the markets as the most luxurious fiber in the world, but only in very limited quantities.Vicuña wool is 10.8 to 11.4 micros (thousandths of a millimeter) thick, even finer than cashmere, which comes from an Asian goat, and is 16 micros thick. Sixty percent of the Vicuña population in the world inhabit in Peru. A scarf made out of this wool, costs around USA$ 450 in Lima, but this price triplicates outside of Peru.
Guanaco ( Lama Guanicoe ) : These are the largest of the South American Camelids and are mainly found in the southern cone of South America, where around 500,000 of them live in the high Andean wilderness in Peru, Argentina and Chile. The extremely fine Guanaco fiber (approx. 16 micros), can only be legally commercialized in the International markets with express authorization from CITES.( www.cites.org)
Alpaca ( Lama Pacos ) :These are the most numerous of the four types of Camelids, with a population of approximately 3.5 million heads in Peru ( about 75% of the world total ). They are the main subsistence means for thousands of high Andean families, for whom it is an inexhaustible source of soft, beautiful, and resistant fiber that is naturally produced in a fantastic array of colors. This characteristic is impossible to find in any other natural fiber.
Llama ( Lama Glama ) : Besides being a means of transportation, llama is a mystic symbol in the Andean culture and is present in many of the rituals that are still performed nowadays. Llama fiber is used in smaller scale in the textile industry.Around 96% of the world llama population inhabit in Peru and Bolivia.
For more information on these Camelids you can go to : Blue Planet Biomes
The information on this article was taken from the catalog of Alpaca 111 ( www.alpaca111.com)
