Featured Photo: Guanacos in Torres del Paine National Park

When you arrive in Torres del Paine National Park in the far south of Chile, chances are some of the first animals you’ll see are the guanacos that roam the plains and lower hills of this Patagonian wilderness.

A member of the camelidae family, guanacos are one of the two wild relatives of the domesticated llama and alpaca (the other is the vicuña, which is smaller). Guanacos are found at elevations up to 13,000 feet in the Andes, as well as at lower elevations on the plains and plateaus of Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Colombia.

The name guanaco comes from the Quechua language, and young guanacos are known as chulengos. Adult guanacos stand from 3.5 to 4 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 300 pounds. The species is quite uniform in color, mostly reddish brown with white underneath and gray faces. They live in small herds, usually groups of up to 10 females, their young, and a single dominant male. Unattached males form separate herds of as many as 50 animals.

Guanacos are always alert for potential threats (the puma is their natural predator), and it’s common to see one individual standing sentry while the rest of the herd grazes. They can run at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour and are excellent swimmers.

Like their cousin the vicuña, guanacos have thick, warm, soft wool, whose appeal led these animals to be overhunted in the past. They are listed as endangered or threatened in several countries, but thanks to conservation efforts their numbers have increased dramatically in some parts of their range. In Torres del Paine they are now commonly seen, often in large numbers.