Wildlife of the World
Puzzle 77 · Deserts and High Plateaus · Page 114 in print
Vicuna Puna
Vicunas graze high Andean grasslands, insulated by a fine, soft coat. Communities gather wild vicunas for shearing in the chaccu, a tradition traced to the Inca Empire.
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Vicuñas gather beside Laguna Colorada in Bolivia.
Species reference for Vicuna Puna. The photograph does not necessarily show the population or place named in the puzzle.
(c) Slunky, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 · Original recordImage changes
Resized and converted to JPEG for display; no subject alteration.
A vicuña stands in sparse high-altitude vegetation in Argentina.
Species reference for Vicuna Puna. The photograph does not necessarily show the population or place named in the puzzle.
Hugo Hulsberg / iNaturalist (CC0) · CC0 1.0 · Original recordImage changes
Resized and converted to JPEG for display; no subject alteration.
The words
Alpaca
A South American camelid related to the vicuña.
Andes
Vicunas live in the Central Andes.
Argentina
Vicunas live in Argentina.
Bolivia
Vicunas live in Bolivia.
Camelid
The vicuna is the smallest of the camel family.
Chaccu
The chaccu is an ancestral practice of gathering wild vicunas to shear their fibre.
Chile
Vicunas live in Chile.
Guanaco
Guanacos are related camelids.
Inca
In the Inca Empire only the emperor could wear vicuna wool.
Llama
Llamas are related camelids.
Pampa Galeras
Pampa Galeras National Reserve protects vicunas.
Peru
Vicunas live in Peru.
Puna
High Andean grassland where vicuñas live and graze.
animaldiversity.org (opens a new tab) · Scientific Reports (opens a new tab)
Vicuna
Vicunas live in high grasslands.
Wool
Vicuna wool is extremely fine and soft.
Sources
- vicunaanimaldiversity.org
- Vicuna chaccuwww.gob.pe
- Vicuna Puna (source capture)Scientific Reports (peer-reviewed article, Reider et al. 2024, wild Andean camelids), full text via Europe PMC