Animal welfare and the sustainable use of the vicuña

Abstract

This chapter addresses the topics of animal welfare (which is based on the wellbeing of the individual animal) and sustainability of use (which is based on population level effects on the species in question). Sustainability in a wider context also embraces social, economic and cultural issues that influence management and conservation of a species. Vicuñas have been captured, handled and shorn since the fifteenth century, when the Inca Empire conducted the "chaku" throughout the Andes of South America (Hurtado, 1987). The chaku consisted of herding thousands of vicuñas into stone corrals for shearing. Local people surrounded vast areas and walked behind the animals, guiding them towards extensive corrals. Although large numbers of animals were shorn by this method, associated morbidity and mortality probably had little effect on the population demographics because the process was conducted only once every 4 years in any given region. When Europeans arrived in South America, the traditional chaku was replaced by indiscriminate hunting (Hoffmann et al., 1983; Cueto et al., 1985; Hurtado, 1987; CONAF, 1991). Current policies for vicuña management include practices such as capture and shearing of wild animals, farming, ranching, and translocation and reintroduction (Cueto et al., 1985; Urquieta and Rojas, 1990; Rebuffi, 1993; Urquieta et al., 1994; Wheeler and Hoces, 1997; Galaz, 1998). Despite the importance of handling in the management of vicuña populations, little is known about the response of vicuña to handling and captivity. However, it is reasonable to assume that vicuñas become stressed by human contact in a similar way to other wild ungulates (Wesson et al., 1979). The proposed sustainable use of vicuña may result in an array of effects which could impact on their welfare. These include the introduction of new morbidity or mortality factors, increasing the risk of less-efficient captures in the future, by affecting population dynamics, and the raising of concerns about the methods used to obtain the fleece, thus risking the economic viability of the programme. Currently there are estimated to be more than a quarter of a million vicuñas in five countries and more than 43 tons of fibre were sold in the market in the past 10 years. Many small enterprises are starting to capture animals for shearing (Lichtenstein and Vilá, 2003). At present there are no animal welfare recommendations available to practitioners, and physiological and ecological findings have not been linked in previous studies (Bonacic et al., 2002). To fill this gap, this chapter addresses the potential animal welfare consequences of capturing and shearing wild vicuñas, identifying critical points of management that must be taken into consideration in any management activity plan involving these animals.