| Paleontologists tell us the camel family
| |
| | 14,000 feet or 4300 meters) and the
|
| arose in the North American Great Plains
| |
| | cashmere-like fragility of its fiber. If
|
| about 45 million years ago. One group
| |
| | you were to own, say, a pair of trousers
|
| took the Bering land bridge into Asia to
| |
| | made of pure vicuña, they'd look and
|
| establish the populations of Bactrian
| |
| | feel heavenly but unless you resolved
|
| camels and dromedaries, while the other
| |
| | never to sit down in them you would
|
| chose the southern route through Panama
| |
| | quickly wear through the seat. To
|
| when that land bridge rose from the sea
| |
| | strengthen it or make it go further, the
|
| about 3 million years ago. Several of
| |
| | Incas would often blend their vicuña
|
| those species prospered in South America,
| |
| | fiber with that of the viscacha, an
|
| including the guanaco, vicuña, Lama
| |
| | Andean rabbit-like animal; but in any
|
| owenii, and Lama gracilis.
| |
| | case by law only their royalty could wear
|
| Ancient humans likely witnessed the
| |
| | such exquisite fabric.
|
| extinctions of the latter two but,
| |
| | In 1958 vicuña was on everybody's lips.
|
| according to prevailing wisdom, bred the
| |
| | President Eisenhower's favorite golfing
|
| domesticated alpaca from the vicuña and
| |
| | buddy and Chief of Staff Sherman Adams
|
| the llama from the guanaco. They prized
| |
| | got the boot after reporters learned that
|
| the fleeces of all four, but to them the
| |
| | he had accepted various sumptuous finery,
|
| most precious and magical was that of the
| |
| | most famously a vicuña coat, from a
|
| vicuña.
| |
| | certain Boston textile magnate named
|
| Type Microns
| |
| | Bernie Goldfine in exchange for some
|
| Vicuña 6-13
| |
| | extra lenient treatment by federal
|
| Chiru 7-9
| |
| | regulators. The scandal even engulfed
|
| Alpaca 10-28
| |
| | future columnist Jack Anderson, who was
|
| Merino 12-20
| |
| | caught bugging Goldfine's hotel room.
|
| Cashmere 15-19
| |
| | Since as far back as the Spanish
|
| Guanaco 16-18
| |
| | conquest, hunting and poaching has been
|
| Llama 20-40
| |
| | stressing the vicuña to the brink of
|
| Chinchilla 21
| |
| | extinction. By the 1970s there were only
|
| Human 15-200
| |
| | a few thousand left. But thanks to
|
| As you can see from the table above, only
| |
| | vigorous conservation measures undertaken
|
| the chiru, a gravely endangered Asian
| |
| | toward the end of the 20th century, most
|
| antelope which is legally off-limits,
| |
| | significantly on the part of the Peruvian
|
| rivals the fineness of its
| |
| | government, their populations have
|
| cinnamon-colored wool. Beyond that,
| |
| | recovered. In 2002 the U.S. Fish &
|
| vicuña is exceedingly rare due to the
| |
| | Wildlife Service reclassified the
|
| amimal's small size (about 90 lbs,
| |
| | vicuñas of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and
|
| yielding only 6-8 ounces of fleece every
| |
| | Peru from endangered to threatened and
|
| two or three years), its obstinacy
| |
| | legalized exports from those four
|
| (supremely evasive and disinclined to eat
| |
| | countries, subject to stringent
|
| or reproduce in captivity), its
| |
| | documentation, for the first time in
|
| death-defying habitat (greatly surpassing
| |
| | decades.
|
