Vicuña Dung Piles For Self‐Orientation

Abstract

Photo 1. Vicuña dung pile in sleeping territory mounted up for weighing. Dung piles function to keep insiders in, not outsiders out. Note the downhill clump of Excrement-Influenced Vegetation (EIV) of unpalatable bunch grass “Peccoy” (Stipa ichu), successional stage EIV-1 from nutrients and organic matter having washed downhill. Additional EIV-1 clumps in right background. Pampa Galeras National Vicuña Reserve, Peru (4,100 m elevation). Photo credit: William L. Franklin. Photo 2. Vicuña territorial male chasing and attacking neighboring adult females that have accidentally trespassed into his year-round, defended feeding territory. Members of neighboring family groups typically smell dung piles as they approach boundaries for self-orientation to stay within their own territory. Photo credit: William L. Franklin. Photo 3. Young Vicuña females at sunset moving to their nighttime sleeping territory that is typically at a higher elevation where nighttime temperatures are warmer and avoids lower valleys where predators often hunt. Photo credit: William L. Franklin. Photo 4. The Andean Vicuña, close to extinction in the 1960s, has now recovered in part due to the protection and rational utilization of the species by indigenous peoples who live-capture the animals to shear and market their extremely fine and valuable wool. Photo credit: William L. Franklin. Photo 5. Young non-territorial Vicuña males in an all-male group moving between feeding sites. Adults weigh between 38 and 46 kg, being monomorphic with no difference between males and females. Photo credit: William L. Franklin. These photographs illustrate the article “Vicuña dung gardens at the edge of the cryosphere: Comment” by William L. Franklin published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3522