DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS IN PERU 



O. F. Cook 



Bionomist in Charge of Crop Acclimatization, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



SE\^ERAL misapprehensions ap- 

 pear in an article published in 

 Science for March 15, 1918. p. 

 268, under the title "The Domes- 

 tication of the Llama." Reference is 

 made to an argument that "thousands 

 of years must have gone by before the 

 llama and its kindred, the alpaca, the 

 vicuiia, and the huanacu, could have 

 been brought to their present state of 

 domestication." Instead of four kin- 

 dred species having been brought into 

 domestication, there seems to have been 

 only one. The vicuiia and the huanacu 

 are not domesticated animals, only the 

 llama and the alpaca, and both of these 

 are supposed to have been derived from 

 the huanacu. Certainly they are not 

 more dififerent than some of the varie- 

 ties of other domesticated species. 

 Though distinct breeds are not sepa- 

 rated, there is much diversity in size, 

 form and color, as well as in the length 

 and texture of the wool in the llama, 

 as well as in the alpaca. If a common 

 origin from the huanacu be denied, it 

 is necessary to assume the former exist- 

 ence of another wild species, the vicuna 

 being too different to figure in such a 

 calculation. 



Both of the wild types, the huanacu 

 and the vicuiia, are extremely shy, re- 

 tiring and fleet, like deer or antelope. 

 If caught young and raised in cages, 

 they may become tame, as do most 

 kinds of deer and antelope, but even the 

 domesticated llama is hardly "a docile 

 animal by nature." It is a stupid, un- 

 willing and resentful beast, in some re- 

 spects like the camel, in others like a 

 sheep. It shares the camel's habit of 

 blowing its nose when offended, but is 



176 



too small to ride and lacks the physical 

 endurance of the "ship of the desert." 

 Alpacas are somewhat smaller than 

 llamas, are seldom trained to carry bur- 

 dens, and are herded with the female 

 llamas on the grazing lands of the high 

 platans. Of the alpaca it is said that 

 an individual animal cannot be driven 

 away from the herd, but the llama is 

 also strongly flock-minded. 



If animals that "feed themselves" and 

 "do without shelter" are only "partially 

 domesticated." not only the llama, the 

 camel and the reindeer, but the sheep, 

 cattle and horses of many countries 

 would fall into this category. With 

 even a little freedom most of our domes- 

 ticated animals will seclude themselves 

 from mankind or revert to hostile in- 

 stincts at the breeding season, and hos- 

 tile propensities are also shown habitu- 

 ally by some individuals of our most 

 domesticated species, dogs, cats, pigs, 

 sheep, cattle and horses. 



One of the most completely domes- 

 ticated creatures is the cuy, or guinea- 

 pig, also a native of Peru. This ani- 

 mal meets all the "criteria of domes- 

 tication" in which the llama is said to 

 fall short. The cuys are sheltered, fed 

 and bred in the houses of the Indians, 

 show no hostility or fear, and refuse 

 even to crawl over a threshold raised a 

 few inches above the ground. Yet the 

 wild cuys are extremely shy, and this 

 ancestral trait persists in hybrids, even 

 when the proportion of wild blood is 

 very small. 



A general result or consequence of 

 domestication in mammals is the break- 

 ing up of the specialized and finely- 

 graded distribution of the hair colors 



