Vicuña
Vicugna vicugna (Molina, 1782)
The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is a mammal in the family Camelidae, tribe Lamini, within the order Artiodactyla. It is a large, terrestrial, diurnal herbivore with an adult body mass of 47.5 kg and up to 50 kg.
Quick facts about the vicuña
Gestation lasts 345 days, ranging from 330 to 350 days, with 1 young per litter and sexual maturity at 2 years. The vicuña is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 47.5 kg – 50 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 26.7 years – 61.5 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 330 days – 350 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 2 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.7src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the vicuña
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the vicuña live?
Not recorded
What is the vicuña?
The vicuña (Lama vicugna) or vicuna (both , very rarely spelled vicugna, its Latin specific name) is a wild South American camelid which lives in high alpine areas of the Andes. It is a relative of the llama, the domesticated descendant of the guanaco, the only other still wild South American camelid.
The vicuña is believed to be the ancestor of domesticated alpaca, which is raised for its coat. The vicuña produces small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal has to be caught from the wild to be fleeced and can only be shorn every three years. When knitted together, the product of the vicuña's wool is very soft and warm. The Inca valued the vicuña highly for its wool, and it was prohibited for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña garments; today, the vicuña is the national animal of Peru and appears on the Peruvian coat of arms.
Both under the rule of the Inca and today, the vicuña has been protected by law, but it was heavily hunted in the intervening period. Only about 6,000 animals were left when it was declared endangered in 1974. Today, the vicuña population has recovered to about 350,000, and although conservation organizations have reduced its level of threat classification, they still call for active conservation programs to protect populations from poaching, habitat loss, and other threats.
Previously, the vicuña was not considered domesticated, and the llama and the alpaca were regarded as descendants of the closely related guanaco. However, DNA research published in 2001 demonstrated that the alpaca may have vicuña parentage. Today, the vicuña is mainly wild, but the local people still perform special rituals with these creatures, including a fertility rite.
From the Wikipedia article “Vicuña” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vicu%C3%B1a&oldid=1382831699), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the vicuña endangered?
The vicuña is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the vicuña classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderArtiodactyla
- familyCamelidae
- genusVicugna
- SpeciesVicugna vicugna (Molina, 1782)
Synonyms Camelus vicugna
Other names and names in other languages (20)
- VicugnaEnglish
- VicugnaEnglish
- VicunaEnglish
- VicunaEnglish
- فكونةArabic
- HuariAymara
- ВікуньяBelarusian
- VicunyaCatalan
- vikuňaCzech
- ΒικούνιαGreek
- vicuñaSpanish
- Vicugna vicugnaSpanish
- VikunjaEstonian
- BikuinaBasque
- شترچهPersian
- VigogneFrench
- ビクーニャJapanese
- 비쿠냐Korean
- Wik'uñaQuechua
- 小羊駝Chinese
Relatives of the vicuña
Other species in the same genus Vicugna.
Alpaca
Vicugna pacos
CompareVicuña vs Alpaca
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is a vicuña?
The vicuña is a mammal in the family Camelidae and the order Artiodactyla.
How heavy is a vicuña?
An adult vicuña has a body mass of 47.5 kg, with values up to 50 kg reported by our sources.
What does a vicuña eat?
The vicuña is a herbivore.
Is the vicuña endangered?
No. The vicuña is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a vicuña live?
Our sources give a lifespan of 26.7 years for the vicuña, with values up to 61.5 years reported.
How many young does a vicuña have?
A vicuña has 1 young per litter, at a rate of 0.7 litters per year, after a gestation of 345 days.
Who named the vicuña?
The vicuña was named Vicugna vicugna by (Molina, 1782).
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/vicu-a
“Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/vicu-a.
@misc{vicu_a_2026,
title = {Vicuña (Vicugna vicugna)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/vicu-a},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}