The fine fiber shorn from a wild Andean relative of the llama, and the cloth made from it, traded internationally only under CITES rules.
Vicuña comes from a wild animal, not a herd. The vicuña lives on the high plateau of the southern Andes, and its fiber is gathered in round-ups that SERFOR, Peru’s wildlife service, calls the chaccu: the animals are captured and shorn without harm, then released. A fact sheet from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile estimates about 250 g of fiber per animal from shearing every two years, with diameters of 12 to 15 microns.
The Vicuña Convention, to which the range countries are signatories, requires animals to be shorn alive and returned to the wild. Under US rules applying CITES, some populations are listed in Appendix II “for the exclusive purpose of allowing international trade in wool sheared from live vicuñas”, its cloth and products; all other vicuña is treated as Appendix I. Cloth crossing the US border must bear the range countries’ logotype on its reverse and “VICUÑA—COUNTRY OF ORIGIN” on its selvages.
In job listings
Vicuña is rarely named in listings, and then mostly in describing a house that works with rare fibers. Its nearest roles are in the mills that card, weave and finish such fibers, and in fiber sourcing roles that test raw materials. See current textile roles.
