Vicugna

Vicugna is a genus of South American camelids in the family Camelidae comprising the wild vicuna and its domesticated descendant the alpaca. The vicuna and alpaca were classified together with the guanaco and llama in the genus Lama until genetic testing showed the alpaca descends from the vicuna, leading to its reclassification from Lama pacos to Vicugna pacos in 2001; the Royal Society continues to treat Vicugna as distinct from Lama, though the American Society of Mammalogists has argued for merging the two given their low genetic distance. Like other South American camelids, vicunas and alpacas lack dorsal humps and have narrow feet with distinct plantar pads, and are native to the high Andean grasslands of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and adjoining countries.