Vicuña

 
Where does the rarest, finest, and most exclusive wool in the world come from? The Vicuña! 
 
The Vicuña is the smallest of the camelids found in the South American countries of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
 
Vicuna were hunted almost to extinction for their wool and meat until the 1960s when Chile and Peru created protected national parks and stopped trade in vicuna wool. Since then, the population has steadily increased.
Despite this, the future of the vicuna is far from certain. Given the degree of poaching, the development of captive management schemes, economic interests for hybridizing vicunas and alpacas, uncertainties about the impact of climate change on the already poor vicuna habitat, and the deterioration of grasslands due to overgrazing by domestic livestock, unless conservation actions are in place, the species’ status might decline again.