CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Live capture and shearing of wild guanacos may affect their reproductive successand population resilience, so it is important to evaluate these impacts to assess thebiological sustainability of obtaining wool from live, wild guanacos.We evaluated effects of capture and shearing on guanaco survival andreproduction, population density and structure, daily movements, rangingbehaviour and spatial distribution in a sedentary and a migratory population of wildguanacos. We assessed population variables using radiotelemetry and line transect surveys before and after capture. We estimated high post-shearingsurvival rates in both populations and similar yearling production in sheared andnon-sheared females in the migratory population. We did not find significantariations in density and population structure before and after capture and shearing in the sedentary population, while density declined and population structure changed significantly after assembly of the capture structure in the migratory population, returning to pre-assembly levels one month later. Average daily distance moved by radiocollared guanacos during the first two days after shearingwas 3 times longer than daily distances moved during the following 30 days.Average home-range size of shorn guanacos declined 25% between the first andsecond month after shearing, but this decline appeared to be associated with aseasonal change in movement, because a similar reduction occurred during thesame period the following year when the guanacos were not captured and shorn.Capture and shearing modified the spatial distribution pattern in the sedentarypopulation but did not have a significant effect in the migratorypopulation. Management of wild guanacos, if closely monitored, may contributetowards developing a biologically sustainable economic activity that complementslivestock production, increasing tolerance towards guanacos and promotingconservation of wildlife and habitats.

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