Animal

Guanaco

A Patagonian fiber with a conservation story.

Reviewed 2026-09-22. Evidence level: verified. Open the interactive profile and route map.

Key figures

Species: Lama guanicoe (subspecies L. g. cacsilensis and L. g. guanicoe)
Santa Cruz population estimate: about 1.1 million (95% CI 0.7 to 1.6 million)
Continental Patagonia: more than two million animals
Density, Santa Cruz: about 1.1 to 7.4 per km2, mean 4.8
Status in Peru: critically endangered (national classification)

Approximate values under the stated conditions.

Overview

Fine undercoat from the guanaco, a South American camelid.

Feel and behavior

Fine and warm, with a limited specialty market.

Where you find it

Fine scarves, knitwear and specialty cloth.

Source and geography

The guanaco, Lama guanicoe, is the largest wild artiodactyl of South America and the wild ancestor of the llama. Its range runs from the Peruvian Andes to Tierra del Fuego, with a northwestern subspecies, L. g. cacsilensis, and a southeastern one, L. g. guanicoe. Numbers are very uneven: distance sampling estimated about 1.1 million in Santa Cruz province alone, and more than two million persist in continental Patagonia, whereas only relict groups remain in the Gran Chaco and the Peruvian government classifies its local population as critically endangered.

Advantages

Fine down gives soft, light, warm accessories.
Natural cinnamon color avoids dyeing.
Live shearing can give economic value to a recovering wild species.
Small-batch supply is often traceable to specific programs.

Drawbacks

Supply is scarce and irregular, so prices are high.
Fine yarns abrade and pill with rough wear.
Capture and shearing stress wild animals.
Species identification requires specialist testing.

Worth knowing

In Tierra del Fuego, beech saplings exposed to guanaco browsing grew only about 40 to 50 cm in ten years, versus about 80 to 100 cm inside fenced exclosures.
Infrared spectroscopy could not tell guanaco fiber from vicuna, but ambient-ionization mass spectrometry separated them.

Types, grades and fabrics

Types and grades

Guanaco fiber is the dehaired undercoat of a wild camelid, and its fineness is commonly reported in the mid-teens of microns, coarser than vicuna but in the range of fine cashmere; published values vary with population and method, so lot testing is the reliable measure. Fleece is double-coated, and the down must be separated from guard hair, which lowers usable yield. Trade forms are raw fleece from live-shearing programs, dehaired fiber, yarn and small quantities of cloth. Natural color is a warm reddish or cinnamon brown, and dyeing is uncommon. Supply is small and irregular, coming mainly from Argentine and Chilean Patagonia.

Fabrics and products

Guanaco is used in very small volumes for luxury scarves, shawls and fine knitwear, and occasionally in woven coating or jacket cloth from specialist mills, usually in its natural color. Blends with fine wool, silk or alpaca extend scarce fiber and add strength. Hand spinners and artisan weavers in Patagonia also produce guanaco yarn and textiles in limited runs. Because of fineness and short staple, it is best suited to soft accessories rather than hard-wearing garments.

Buying and care

How to judge quality

Look for a soft, fine hand, an even natural color and very few coarse, straight guard hairs. The fiber content line should state guanaco (in the US, as guanaco hair or fiber) and its percentage in blends. Ask about origin, capture and shearing method and any national or CITES permits, since guanaco is a wild species. Vicuna and guanaco are hard to tell apart by eye or infrared spectroscopy, so high-value claims can be checked by mass spectrometry. Vague origins and unusually low prices deserve caution.

Care in detail

Follow the maker's instructions; many pieces are dry clean only. If hand washing is allowed, use cool water with a very mild wool shampoo free of enzymes and bleach, support the piece while wet, press water out in a towel and dry flat away from heat and sun. Never wring or tumble dry. Avoid pressing; steam lightly from a distance at a low setting if needed. Keep scarves away from rough fabrics and hardware that abrade fine fiber. Store clean, folded in breathable cotton, and check periodically for moth larvae.

Care at a glance

Follow specialist instructions; protect fine cloth from abrasion and moth damage.

Environmental and social footprint

Guanaco fiber comes from wild or semi-captive animals, so direct inputs are small, but the ecological context is complex. Guanaco numbers rebounded in parts of Patagonia as sheep declined, and live shearing has been proposed as sustainable use of land no longer profitable for sheep. At the same time, guanacos compete with livestock and browse forest regeneration: in Tierra del Fuego, saplings of the southern beech Nothofagus pumilio grew about half as tall outside fenced exclosures, prompting proposals for fencing combined with hunting. Handling, shearing and release raise glucocorticoid stress hormones, so capture protocols matter. In southern Peru the local population is critically endangered and hunting is illegal. No per-kilogram life cycle assessment of guanaco fiber was found.

Tradeoffs

Origin and collection require close scrutiny. The atlas retains geographic concepts without validating a commercial chain.

A useful question to ask: Is there independent documentation of the origin and collection method?

Science

Protein-based natural material

Most hair is keratin; silk is a different protein-fiber system.

Structure and chemistry

Guanaco fleece is double-coated, with a fine, soft undercoat and coarser guard hair, both alpha-keratin fibers with a scaled cuticle and variable medullation; the undercoat is the textile fraction. Published diameter values differ with population and method, so no single figure is given here, and buyers should rely on laboratory measurement of the lot. Chemically, guanaco fleece carries a lipid profile of fatty acids, cholesterol and related compounds that mass spectrometry distinguishes from both vicuna and alpaca, even though infrared spectra could not separate guanaco from vicuna.

From source to yarn

Commercial fiber comes from capture and shearing of wild or semi-captive guanacos; in Argentine Patagonia, animals captured in the wild have been kept in semi-captivity for fiber production. Animals are gathered, restrained, shorn and released, and hormone studies show measurable stress responses to handling, shearing and release, one reason handling protocols matter. The fleece is then skirted, scoured and dehaired to remove guard hair before carding and spinning.

Performance in use

Dehaired guanaco down shares the hygroscopic, self-extinguishing and acid-dyeable behavior of other keratin fibers and gives light, warm, soft fabrics. Its fineness makes it vulnerable to abrasion and pilling in lightly twisted knits and scarves, and any guard hair left after dehairing is felt as prickle and seen as coarse, straight fibers on the surface. It must be protected from clothes moth and carpet beetle larvae and from harsh alkaline washing.

How it is identified

Burn tests (indicative only, and to be done with care) show keratin behavior. Hair morphology does not reliably separate camelid species, and in a forensic study infrared spectroscopy distinguished alpaca but not guanaco from vicuna, whereas direct-analysis-in-real-time mass spectrometry separated all three with high cross-validated accuracy. DNA methods combining mitochondrial cytochrome b, microsatellites and the SRY sex marker have identified poached guanaco in Chilean Patagonia, and similar tools could support provenance checks on raw fiber.

History

Timeline

2013A study of free-ranging guanacos measured rises in glucocorticoid stress hormones with handling, shearing and release. [4]
2014A 36-year population series from Tierra del Fuego found that sheep density strongly depressed guanaco population growth. [2]
2015Surveys estimated about 1.1 million guanacos in Santa Cruz province, Argentina (95% CI 0.7 to 1.6 million). [1]
2024Research documented conflict between farmers and the critically endangered guanaco population of southern Peru. [3]

Guanaco is part of South American camelid textile history. Its relationship to wild populations makes modern collection and provenance especially important. This atlas treats the inherited international route as a research model.

The deeper record

Guanaco populations were reduced and displaced by hunting and by sheep ranching, which brought fences and overgrazing to the Patagonian steppe; a 36-year series from Tierra del Fuego found that sheep density strongly depressed guanaco population growth. Where sheep numbers fell, guanacos rebounded and genetically separated groups reconnected. This recovery prompted proposals for sustainable use of guanacos on degraded land that no longer supports profitable sheep, alongside conflicts with farmers in southern Peru, where hunting the critically endangered local population is illegal. Guanacos were also introduced to Staats Island in the Falklands in the 1930s.

Labeling and law

Guanaco is not named in the US Wool Products Labeling Act, so its content is disclosed under 16 CFR 303.6, using the animal's name with hair, fiber or blend, for example guanaco hair, when present at 5% or more, or the collective term fur fiber. In the EU, Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 lists guanaco among the named fine animal hairs, followed or not by wool or hair. Because guanaco is a wild species, buyers should also check current CITES requirements and national permits for the specific lot.

This describes what rules and standards cover. It is not legal advice; jurisdiction, product form and current rule text control.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between guanaco and vicuna?

Both are wild South American camelids. Vicuna fiber is finer, around 13 to 14 microns in published studies, and comes mainly from the high Andes, while guanaco fiber is somewhat coarser and comes mostly from Patagonia. Both are shorn from live animals at round-ups, and their fibers are hard to distinguish without laboratory tests.

Is guanaco fiber legal to buy?

Guanaco products can be traded legally when the fiber was obtained under national rules and the required permits, including any CITES documentation for international trade. Ask the seller for origin and paperwork, especially for products crossing borders.

Why is guanaco rare in shops?

Guanacos are wild, capture and shearing programs are small, each animal yields little down after dehairing, and some populations are protected. Supply is therefore limited to niche mills and artisan producers, mostly in Argentina and Chile.

Sources

Cite this page

Chaos. (2026). Guanaco. In Fibers of Earth: An independent textile atlas. https://www.hendrickresearch.com/fibers/materials/guanaco/