Habitat use by vicuñas, Vicugna vicugna in Laguna Pozuelos REserve (jujuy, Argentina)

ARZAMENDIA Y., CASSINI M. Y VILÁ B.

ORYX

Cambridge University press

Lugar: Cambridge, UK; Año: 2006 vol. 40 p. 198 - 203

0030-6053

Vicuña Vicugna vicugna are an emblematic species of one of the major arid ecosystems of the neotropics: the puna, or altiplano. The excessive commercial hunting of vicuña for their valuable fleece in the past caused a severe decline in the population, with the vicuña almost becoming extinction by the mid 20th century. Effective protection laws have resulted in the recovery of some populations and, recently, limited vicuña exploitation has been allowed. Research is urgently required to underpin the design of the management systems used for this exploitation. In this paper, we present the result of a 2-year study on habitat utilization of vicuña in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Argentina (Pozuelos). Vicuña did not use the study area homogeneously but preferred vegetation communities dominated by grasses (‘pajonal’ and ‘esporal’) and with high overall plant cover. Vicuña were less selective in 2003, when overall habitat quality decreased, than in 2002. This change is predicted as a ‘buffer’ effect by habitat selection theory. We also identified a daily pattern of activity and found that members of family groups spend more time foraging than members of non-reproductive groups. Solitary vicuña spend more time standing up than members of groups, consistent with the observation that herding behaviour is related to protection against predators. Heterogeneous use and habitat selectivity suggest that approaches to in situ exploitation of vicuña ought to take spatial behaviour into account to establish the optimal location of capturing sites.   Keywords Argentina, habitat use, Jujuy, Pozuelos Reserve, sustainable use, Vicugna vicugna, vicuña.