A South American mammal (Auchenia vicunna) native of the elevated plains of the Andes, allied to the llama but smaller. It has a thick coat of very fine reddish brown wool, and long, pendent white hair on the breast and belly. It is hunted for its wool and flesh.
Vicugna vicugna, a small-sized relative of the llama. They stand about 1.5 meters tall and weigh about 50 kilograms. They live in the high regions of the Andes, between 3,000 and 4,600 meters in altitude.
Vicuña is a short, soft, exceedingly fine hair fiber that is very valuable because of its limited supply. It is rarely used by itself, although a few vicuña coats are manufactured each year. It is sometimes mixed with wool to produce special soft coating fabrics. The term and certain derived and coined names have been much misused.
a soft wool fabric made from the fleece of the vicuna
small wild cud-chewing Andean animal similar to the guanaco but smaller; valued for its fleecy undercoat
A small (90 pounds) South American camelid with an extremely fine cinnamon and white coat; some consider the vicuna to be the direct ancestor of the alpaca.
The best of all luxury fibers, the Vicuna (that's an animal) lives mostly above the clouds in certain plateaus of South America. The fiber is so fine, it is half the diameter of the finest wool.
(Spanish) A camel-like animal native to the Andes, prized for its soft and silken wool.
The smallest of a triumvirate of South American llamas (llama, alpaca and vicuña, in order of size), vicuñas grow what is considered the world's most precious animal fiber. Each adult yields only about eight ounces of usable undercoat in a fleece of amazing resilience, strength, beauty and softness. Traditionally the vicuña was killed when sheared; herds became so depopulated that the animal was put on the endangered species list in the 1970s. Now a method has been found to shear the animal without harm, and its numbers are growing. The vicuña is expected to prosper and be removed from the list, and production of its beautiful cloth will soon resume.
A cloth, usually overcoating, made from the fine downy hair of the Peruvian llama.
Native South American camelid, thought to be the ancestor of the domesticated alpaca. Vicunas, which exhibit the finest natural fiber in the world, can cross-breed with alpacas.
The fine underhair of the Vicuna, a member of the Llama family.
Smallest member of the llama family. It could possibly take up to 20 Vicunas to make an average top coat. Understandably expensive.
