Living elegantly is an art: I do it exceptionally well

Living elegantly is an art: I do it exceptionally well

A vicuna having an elegant nibble. Edinburgh Zoo has a small herd of vicuna, which are the wild species of camel from which the alpaca was domesticated. (The South American camels – vicuna, alpaca, guanaco – don’t have a visible hump, as bactrians and dromedaries do.)

Vicunas have very fine, thick fur, for which they were hunted nearly to extinction by the 1970s. But anti-poaching efforts in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, have led to a comeback, and the species has made a remarkable comeback in its native mountains.

“Vicunas represent the Andes, the ancient cultures and grace of all wild creatures. The world would not be the same without the beauty of vicunas.” – Alfonso Martinez, president of Consejo Nacional de Camelidos Sudamericano