The guanaco It is a species that is physically very similar to llamas and alpacas, only that its fur is not as abundant as that of these species, the truth is that they have a relationship that differs in several sources. Here some characteristics will be explained, its habitat, what its diet consists of, its reproduction and finally its threats.
What is a guanaco?
Some books classify it as an ancestor of the llamas, this would be the northern guanaco specifically, other documents such as "Especies demammals del mundo" (Mamals Species of the World) place it as a subspecies of the llama, in other places it is taken into account as one of the two species that descended from the alpacas, it is something that is not yet clear.
The llama and the alpaca are two of the best-known species in the world and have a common ancestor: the guanaco or Lama guanicoe, which can only be seen in some South American nations, belongs to the family camelidae along with the camels. Only two subspecies of the guanaco have been recorded: the Peruvian or northern guanaco (Lama guanicoe cacsilensis) and the southern or southern guanaco (Lama guanicoe guanicoe).
Features
Some characteristics that the guanaco has are:
- On average they measure from 1,60 to 1,90 meters and can weigh between 90 and 100 kilograms, even specimens weighing more than 130 kilos have been found.
- They can live on average about 20 or 25 years if they are in the wild, which is how they are in the countries mentioned.
- Its fur can be brown with tones that make it look reddish on the back and tail, a part of its neck and the rest of its underparts are white. This coat is a little shorter than that of llamas and queens and quite light because its fibers are hollow.
- The guanaco is a fast species when it feels that it is in a dangerous situation, for example, when it sees a predator nearby. At that time they can run at 60 kilometers per hour and even a little more, this can work in some cases and not in others because their natural predators are much faster. In addition to running, the guanaco has shown that it knows how to swim quite well.
- It usually spits balls of food and saliva at long distances from its position.
- Although it does not usually drink much water, this species can calmly drink salt water without complications.
- The sounds they emit are different depending on the situation, if they see another male very close to their pack, they can be heard clicking, while if they see a predator they make louder sounds to warn the rest of the members of their pack.
Behavior
The guanaco spends its entire life with habits of territorial protection, it is also in charge of protecting its herd when they are the adult males of the herd. Even so, some populations were domesticated a long time ago and are currently tame animals that have a calm attitude towards people, normally they are not aggressive except to defend their territory, if they are disturbed or if they consider that they are in danger and in those cases they tend to run away from the site instead of attacking.
Other than that, they are not solitary animals, they live in relatively large herds with females, young and a male in each group. This male is the one with the status of the dominant individual. There are also herds in which there is more than one male, these would be single specimens, while there are mixed herds that are generally created when they are migrating in the winter, there can be indistinct amounts of females and males.
On this migratory habit they travel both for the climate and for the search for food, however, it is more frequent that they travel for food, for example, a dry season can considerably reduce the chances of finding food, so they are seen forced to travel to other places where the climate is more favorable and the vegetation is more abundant.
Food
This species is herbivorous, so its diet is mainly based on tubers, the seeds of many plant species, and also its fruits. It is spoken in general because it has a variety of foods in its daily diet that it can eat without distinction, although they prefer herbs and shrubs of almost any species, it does not matter if it is a cactus, if it is a plant or if it is another type of species. .
In addition to wild fruits, the guanaco eats nuts and other dry foods, it does not matter if they seem to be too hard to chew since it is a ruminant species. This is something that can also be seen in the flame characteristics And another thing they have in common regarding their diet is the low consumption of water, this is really due to the type of food they eat, since they are mostly plants, they acquire sufficient hydration from them.
Reproduction
The guanaco mostly enters its mating season from the beginning of the month of November until the middle or a little more than February. The behavior changes during this time in both males and females, the former are much more aggressive and fight more frequently with other guanacos when they want to mate with a common female.
As indicated, in a herd there is generally one male and several females, so the guanaco is polygynous and mates with all of them. This can be done after they reach a year or two of age, which is when they are sexually mature.
As for the gestation period, in this species it lasts almost a year (345 days) or can extend up to 360 days, all this to have only one offspring or in some cases two of them, however, both offspring do not always live, one of them can die at any time.
The birth of these young normally occurs during the spring, the perfect time for them to eat enough because they find more food during that specific time, however, births also occur during the summer. Since they are born they stay close to their mothers and separate when they are a little over a year old. If it is a group where a single male dominates the entire herd, they can also go and join a herd where only males live together.
Habitat
As for the place where guanacos usually live, you can find a similarity with the llamas that they like to live on high, they prefer locations with up to 4.000 or 5.000 meters above sea level. These sites are usually meadows that are sometimes forests, otherwise the savannahs are also a space where it will be possible to find them.
In general, it can be said that they prefer both the arid and semi-arid regions with a high altitude and the mountains that are a little closer to the sea, however, it is not very common to see them in forests because they prefer more extensive places, such as grasslands, the steppes, the prairies, which have in common that they are quite open due to the absence of so many trees. In addition to that, arid and semi-arid regions are ideal for camouflage and to avoid capturing the attention of predators.
This species is native to South America, specifically Argentina, Bolivia, Chile (north preferably), Paraguay and Peru. Currently it can be found in those places, but most of the population is in Argentina. It is estimated that at the time of the conquest at least 500.000 specimens of this species existed on the continent, that figure was greatly reduced in each of the countries due to various factors, in fact, it was completely eliminated in Ecuador.
Threats
This species is not really part of the lists of Endangered animals in the world, it only remains classified at the level of least concern. This is so because it does not really have a small population and is quite stable, it is not found in few places in the world and the places where it is currently found are mostly protected areas. Likewise, there is a hunting law that protects these animals, which is the Law on Hunting, Breeding and Use in situ.
It can be said that as threats related to human activity, this species faces the destruction of some of its habitats, in addition to that the hunting of guanacos also occurs, although not as frequently as with other species, such as tigers or leopards. However, their skin and wool do not save them from hunting that humans can give them, in Argentina and Chile the records keep this species out of danger. The opposite occurs in Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru.
As for natural threats, on the one hand, it is known that the predators that usually catch them are the puma or the culpeo fox, even so, their population remains with enough individuals not to be classified as an endangered species.