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How itchy vicuñas remade a vast wilderness

An outbreak of mange among a population of the llama-like beasts kicked off a cascade of ecological effects in the high Andes.
Vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) male in defensive posture, in Laguna de los Pozuelos Natural Monument, Andes, northwestern Argentina.

A male vicuña strikes a defensive pose. The density of vicuña in a national park in Argentina dropped by 90% after mange broke out among the animals. Credit: Sebastian Kennerknecht/Nature Picture Library

When mange began to kill llama-like animals called vicuñas in the high Andes, their loss reverberated through the food web to affect grasslands and, eventually, condors1.

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Nature 603, 205 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00592-8

References

  1. Monk, J. D. et al. Ecol. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13983 (2022).

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