The vicuña is a wild species of camelidae, only found in the Andes Mountains. It is highly valued for its wool and is the national animal of Peru, appearing on the coat of arms. The wool is harvested once a year in my community in a festival where all the wild vicuña are rounded up and sheared. It involves a lot of running up and down hills carrying barbed wire on sticks, so I have started training for it now. I have been told it is pretty tiring, especially with the air being so thin in Junín.
It looks very similar to a llama or alpaca, being the wild ancestor of the latter. It's leaner than them both, and much more agile, and its ears appear longer and more attentive. It has light tan fur covering most its body, with the underside typically being white fur.
Coming from the east coast of the United States, it reminded me a lot of white-tailed deer, especially with their white undersides and tails. It behaves in a similarly jittery and skittish manner, looking up and staring intently at you as you casually approach, and bounding away once you get too close. It was interesting to compare them from what I saw of llamas already, seeing how much they had changed under human domestication.
