noun
definition
A South American mammal, Vicugna vicugna, closely related to the alpaca, llama, and guanaco.
Examples of vicuna in a Sentence
On the arid plateaus of the north-west, the guanaco and vicuna are still to be found, though less frequently, together with a smaller species of viscacha (Lagidium cuvieri).
They have a similar wool to the vicuna, but coarser and redder; both are largely used in South America.
Vicuna is a species of long-necked sheep native to South America, bearing some resemblance to the guanaco, but the fur is shorter, closer and much finer.
A small number of very pretty guanaco and vicuna carriage rugs are imported into Europe, and many come through travellers and private sources, but generally they are so badly dressed that they are quite brittle upon the leather side.
For weaving, the most valuable pieces are mohair taken from the angora and vicuna.
A small deer and, in southern Ecuador, the llama (Auchenia) with its allied species, the alpaca, guanaco and vicuna, represent the ruminants.
Alpaca, Vicuna, and Llama Wool imported into the United Kingdom.
Historical literature has been enriched by the works of Diego Barros Arana, Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna, Miguel Luis Amunategui, Carlos Walker Martinez, and others.
In June 1891 he ordered the presidential election to be held, and Senor Claudio Vicuna was duly declared chosen as president of the republic for the term commencing in September 1891.
Vicuna Machenna, Vida de O'Higgins (Santiago, 1882), giving a useful account of the revolutionary struggle and the main actors; and the same author's Historia jeneral de la republics de Chile, a collection of essays on the early republican history by various writers.
The vicuna also is celebrated for its wool, which the natives weave into beautiful and costly ponchos (blanket cloaks) and other wearing apparel.
They are skilful in the preparation of lap robes and rugs from the skins of the alpaca and vicuna.
In the following centuries the Spanish colonists reduced the vicuna from more than a million to just a few thousand.