Lynnette Price, age 11, of Portland, Ore., for her question:     

WHAT SORT OF ANIMALS ARE VICUNAS?

Let's take an imaginary trip down to South America and visit a herd of vicunas. You might mistake them for rather odd sheep with extra‑long necks. But chances are you would never suspect they are related to the stately camels of Africa and Asia. The vicunas seem too small and have no humps on their backs.

Spanish explorers met the vicuna in Peru and borrowed his Inca name, pronounced vi‑coon‑ya. He is a shy animal who prefers to live in the wilds of Chile and Peru, high on the Andes where the air is quite thin.

The vicuna story began 40 million years ago. At that time, herds of ancestral camels shared our continent with herds of ancestral horses. The camel resembled smallish sheep with long necks, and the horses were no bigger than Lassie. Some of the little horses crossed long‑forgotten land bridges into Asia and spread through Europe and Africa. Those that stayed home failed to survive.

Some of the little camels reached Asia and Africa. Through the ages they became huge animals with humps on their backs. Other ancestral camels left North America and wandered down into South America. They remained smallish and humpless, more like the original camels. Some are llamas; others are guanacos, alpacas and vicunas.

Before Columbus arrived, the super‑fine hair of the wild vicunas was used to weave cloth for the ruling Inca of Peru. Compared with these soft silken threads, the finest human hair seems like wire. Fabric woven from vicuna hair is called cumpi cloth, and it is softer than cashmere. In the days of the Inca, ordinary folk were not allowed to wear this precious fabric.

The llama and the alpaca were domesticated long ago. But most attempts to tame the shy vicuna have failed. He lives with his small herd on slopes too high for most humans to live in comfort.

This is possible because his blood can absorb plenty of oxygen from the thin air. Human red blood cells live about 100 days, while the superior red cells of the vicuna live 235 days.

The male vicuna may tend a herd of a dozen females and their offspring. While this well‑dressed family grazes, their devoted guardian keeps a lookout from a high peak. When visitors approach, he utters a shrill warning whistle and the herd trots off to safety. Since they are genuine members of the Camelidae family, they travel by moving two right feet, then two left feet.