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Today we will introduce you to the elusive vicuña, whose wool is worth more than gold.
For example, in northern Bolivia, one kilogram of this wool sells for $370.
And when wool products hit the shelves in Italy, a vicuña wool coat could cost around
$35,000.
The vicuña belongs to the camelid family of the callus suborder.
Of all its relatives, such as guanaco and llama, it is the smallest.
It has a residence permit in the western part of South America, namely: in the highlands
of the Andes.
The Incas believed that this was the reincarnation of a beautiful woman who received a golden
coat in exchange for marriage to a disgusting king.
For this reason, only Inca royalty were allowed to wear vicuña wool.
Vicuña wool is luxuriously soft and highly functional.
On the plains inhabited by vicuñas, temperatures can drop to freezing at night.
Through biological adaptations, their fur keeps them warm throughout the night by keeping
the heat close to their bodies.
Pastoral communities in Bolivia, Peru, and other South American countries where vicuñas
are bred can only shear their wool once every two years.
Today, conservation efforts have ensured that the vicuña thrives in its natural habitat.
Conservationists and local communities are working together to protect the wild vicuña
herd.
So why is vicuña wool so expensive?
First of all, vicuña wool is very thin compared to other furs.
Wool density is measured in microns.
An adult vicuña produces a wool of 13 microns, compare this to an alpaca with a thickness
of 22 to 24 microns or a llama with a thickness of about 30 microns.
This is one reason why this silky, thick, ultra-fine vicuña fur is the most expensive
wool in the world.
The second reason is that it is difficult to get its wool, because it is forbidden by
law to kill these animals, and they are poorly tamed.
This animal is rare and lives in remote regions of the Andes.
It is also important that the vicuña can be sheared only in the conditions of its habitat.
Animals cannot be domesticated!
That is, they, of course, will survive and even give as much wool as in the wild, but
the wool of domesticated animals will lose its properties.
Another reason for the high cost is that it takes about 40 vicunas to produce enough wool
for one coat.
A strip of wool that weighs only 100 grams will cost 65 thousand rubles!
Socks made from her wool will cost as much as a used car.
A vicuña fur coat is simply sky-high.
This is more expensive than a multi-room apartment in the center of Moscow!
To start producing such fine wool, the first step is to capture a herd of vicuñas.
For catching and shearing vicuñas, a complex ritual was invented, which in the local language
is called chaku.
The bottom line is that wild animals are driven into a paddock, sheared and released into
the wild.
This is the task of the whole family, and not of individuals; the whole community participates
in the trapping.
Vicuñas are incredibly fast runners and "escape masters".
They have also been known to starve themselves if successfully captured.
For this reason, vicunas are usually kept for a very short period of time before they
are sheared and released back into the wild.
The pastoral community begins to prepare for trapping a month in advance.
To do this, they observe the herd and track its movement.
Shepherds must plan how to organize the capture of the flock in order for the vicunas to move
to the temporary fence.
The day of the so-called communeros begins with a traditional ceremony.
They make an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth).
And then a group of motorcyclists appears.
Without motorcycles, it will not be possible to drive vicuñas.
The roar of about 70 motorcycles breaks the silence of the windswept Andean plain.
Motorcycles are perfect for the flat, treeless landscape of Bolivia's vast plateau.
Motorcycles sometimes break down.
Usually repairs cost from 30 to 50 dollars, and if the engine broke down, the repair will
cost almost 300 dollars.
But without motorcycles it is impossible to do.
Motorcyclists first round up the shy vicunas into a herd, and then the animals are surrounded
by a human cordon and herded into makeshift pens made of sticks and a net almost three
meters high, where the vicunas are kept for about five hours before they are released.
Pens are needed to keep these agile animals from jumping and running away.
The locals come out at dawn, surround the vicuñas on the hill, and lead them to the
paddock.
The peasants walk slowly and raise their hands to drive the animals down the hill.
Everyone is warmly dressed because of the low temperatures and the strong Andean wind.
They wear hats to protect themselves from the scorching sun.
Men and women take part, dressed in wide skirts, and some with children on their backs, tied
to a colorful traditional blanket.
Collecting vicunas in a herd is the most difficult part of the job, because the animals are scattered
over a large area.
Even when they are surrounded, corralling them is not easy.
They try to run away and compared to alpacas, they are strong animals.
Sometimes they can even injure a person.
Once vicunas are captured, they are sheared.
Inside the paddock, two members of the community hold the vicuña on a tarp lying on the ground,
while a technician cuts it quickly with a machine connected to a portable generator.
Fur suitable for collection must be at least two and a half centimeters long.
With luck, they can collect up to 40 kilograms of wool per day.
The wool of each copy is placed in an individual plastic bag.
As soon as the light brown animal is shorn, it is released from the pen, and it races
back up the mountain.
This work is repeated in every community.
Management councils have been set up to organize the grazing and conservation of vicuñas in
the shepherds' settlements.
They choose authoritative people in their province.
Keeping a herd of animals is very important, because the breeding of camelids, such as
alpacas and vicuñas, is the main source of income for local residents.
In this region, they make a living only by breeding camelids, because nothing grows at
such an altitude.
Raw vicuña wool costs between $300 and $500 per kilo.
A vicuña shearing job takes one to two weeks.
Each community can earn between $750 and $1,100 per season, depending on the amount of wool
collected.
Profits are shared among all members of the community, and this helps a lot.
Unlike alpacas, vicuñas cannot be domesticated and are much more difficult to tame.
But the good news is that the number of herds in the provinces located in the Apolobamba
region of the South American Andes is constantly growing.
So, if, as of 2019, the number of vicuñas in the provinces of Apolobamba was more than
12,000 individuals, then, according to farmers, today the herd has grown by nine percent.
And that's an astounding number, because at one point there were only about 65 vicunas
left in the region.
They have been officially classified as endangered.
Recognizing that this culturally significant animal is in serious danger, the governments
of Peru, Chile and other South American countries have taken steps to prevent its extinction.
The trade in vicuña wool was banned, but today this ban has been lifted.
Community members now have technical advisors and veterinarians sent by the Ministry of
Agriculture and regional governments.
The technical manager oversees 18 different communities in the provinces where vicuñas
graze.
They make sure that communities are equipped with all the necessary mechanical tools for
shearing wool.
Until 2019, most communities cut with scissors, which was time consuming.
However, in some mountainous areas, there are still communities that use shears because
there is no way for managers to bring power generators there.
However, one experienced and well-trained shearer is always dispatched from the shearing
management team to each community to help ensure the highest quality products and the
safety of the vicuña.
In addition, they monitor the correct treatment of animals.
For the sake of welfare, it is forbidden to grab the vicuña by the tail and ears.
This is a very gentle animal.
Because vicunas are wild, they can be accidentally injured or infected with some kind of disease,
since they are not vaccinated.
All these measures allow shearers to get the best price for their products.
Wool manufacturers offer three types of fibers, mainly for European markets.
These are raw fiber, refined fiber and fiber with pre-treatment.
Pre-carded fiber increases the initial cost of production by 25%.
This process requires manual labor to remove the bristles from the collected wool.
Such work on the processing of wool collected from one or two animals takes a full day.
Residents remain hopeful of seeing more vicuña wool industrialization in the future.
And now this is the final stage, which many residents of Apolobamba are unlikely to ever
see.
More than 90 percent of this fiber is sent to Italy, where it will be spun into designer
fabrics at Loro Piana.
Just one scarf, made from Loro Piana's vicuña wool, sells for around 4,500 euros.
Because of its legendary softness, vicuña wool is in high demand and fetches a high
price, which means that its status as a fabric favored by the elite has not changed since
the fall of the Inca empire.
However, the neighboring artisans who make the clothes wanted the vicuña wool to go
to local producers as much as possible.
Vicuña wool is purchased at the expense of the state and distributed among at least 10
craftsmen who can only process two or three kilograms a day.
For a manufacturer, making a vicuña sweater takes as much labor as making an alpaca sweater,
but he can earn much more from selling vicuña products.
However, according to the producers, the state does not supply them with enough raw materials
for them to make a significant profit.
Therefore, in order to prepare enough material for work, some artisans turn to the black
market.
However, the South American states are struggling with this.
For this, special permits have been introduced for everyone who sells and manufactures products
from the wool of these animals.
Such certificates guarantee that the wool was obtained from live vicuñas.
Without such permission, any sale and purchase transaction is illegal.
A special marking for vicuna products has also been approved.
Have you noticed that all vicuñas are the same color?
It's called the vicuña color.
This material is so delicate that it can be dyed without damaging it in
just a few colors.
You can diversify the palette only due to different shades of the wool of the animals
themselves.
Therefore, vicuña wool is never dyed in other colors, as
this will lose its unique properties.
All vicuña products are always presented in a natural brown-gold color, which gives
even more nobility to fashionable clothes.
Even the largest manufacturers sew no more than a hundred vicuñas a year.
Their price is huge.
As already mentioned, the cost of one item starts at $ 30,000.
That's all.
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