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Updated: June 29, 2025
They saw the `llama' domesticated and trained to carrying burdens, and the `alpaca, a smaller species, reared on account of its valuable fleece. "But there were still two other species of these odd animals only observed in a wild state, and in the more desolate and uninhabited parts of the Cordilleras. These were the `guanaco' and `vicuna.
So much for llamas. Now the "guanaco." It is neither, but an animal of specific difference. It exists in a wild state in the high mountains, though, with great care and trouble, it can be domesticated and trained to carry burdens as well as its congener the llama. In form it resembles the latter, but, as is the case with most wild animals, the guanacos are all alike in colour.
Once he had approached a flock of vicunas disguised in the skin of a guanaco, and killed most of them before they thought of retreating. "It was necessary for us to return to the hut for our horses in order to carry home the game, and this required several journeys to be made.
In this island they have abundance of very handsome middle-sized horses, which the natives are said to manage with great dexterity. They have also an animal, called guanaco or carneso de tierra, that is, sheep of the country, which very much resembles a camel, but not nearly so large. They have long necks, and I have seen one of them between five and six feet high.
The vicuna inhabits the high plains of the Andes, though, unlike the guanaco, it rarely ventures up the rocky cliffs, as its hoofs are only calculated for the soft turf of the plains. It roams about in larger herds than the other eighteen or twenty in the herd and these are usually females under the protection and guidance of one polygamous old male.
"It is not so easy getting near the guanaco. He is among the shyest game I have ever hunted, and his position is usually so far above that of the hunter, that he commands at all times a view of the movements of the latter. The over-hanging rocks, however, help one a little, and by diligent creeping he is sometimes approached.
"The wool of the vicuna being so much in demand, it will be easily conceived that hunting the animal is a profitable pursuit; and so it is. In many parts of the Andes there are regular vicuna hunters, while, in other places, whole tribes of Peruvian Indians spend a part of every year in the chase of this animal and the guanaco.
The alpaca is never used as a beast of burden. Its fleece is the consideration for which it is domesticated and reared, and its wool is much finer and more valuable than that of the llama. "The guanaco is, perhaps, the least prized of the four, as its fleece is of indifferent quality, and its flesh is not esteemed.
The llama and guanaco stand higher, because their legs are longer, but they are far inferior to the tapir in bulk and weight: while the bears of South America, of which there are two or three species, are small-sized bears, and therefore less than the tapir. In fact, no very large land animals were found indigenous in the southern division of the American continent.
The chances are that another of these pumas finds him out and leaves us but poor pickings." I agreed to the wisdom of the suggestion, and so we supplied ourselves with enough meat for all the party. We then raised a mark near our guanaco as we had done before. "That will do famously," said Jerry, finishing the heap with a long piece of cactus. "Now, let us go and look for Fleming.
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