1002 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



The guanaco (L. guanacus) is a rather larger and heavier-built 

 Guanaco animal than the vicuna, with a longer head, larger skull, and distinct, 



naked patches on the knees of the hind-legs. A full-grown male will measure four 

 feet in height at the shoulder, and from seven to eight feet in length. The thick 

 and woolly hair is of a pale reddish color, longest and palest on the under parts. 

 The geographical range of this species is very wide, extending from the lofty 

 mountains of Ecuador and Peru, where it is found in company with the vicuna, to 

 the plains of Patagonia and the islands of Tierra-del-Fuego. 



In the mountains the habits of the guanaco appear to be very similar 

 to those of the vicuna, but is not unfrequently seen in larger flocks, 

 which may occasionally reach as many as one hundred or even five hundred head. 

 The pairing season occurs in August and September, and the young are born ten or 

 eleven months afterward. Darwin states that these animals are very wild and wary, 

 and that frequently the first evidence of their presence in the neighborhood of the 

 hunter is their loud, neighing alarm cry, which makes itself heard at a great dis- 

 tance. ' ' If the hunter looks attentively, he will then, ' ' writes Darwin, ' ' probably see 

 the herd standing in a line on the side of some distant hill. On approaching nearer, 

 a few more squeals are given, and off they set at an apparently slow but really quick 

 canter, along some narrow beaten track to a neighboring hill. If, however, by 

 chance he abruptly meets a single animal, or several together, they will generally 

 stand motionless and intently gaze at him, then perhaps move on a few yards, turn 

 round, and look again. ' ' The writer then proceeds to give instances of their ex- 

 treme curiosity, and adds that they are easily domesticated, and in the wild state 

 have no notion of defending themselves. He continues that ' ' guanacos take readily 

 to the water; several times at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to 

 island. Byron, in his voyage, says he saw them drinking salt water. Some of our 

 officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid from a salina near 

 Cape Blanco. I imagine in several parts of the country if they do not drink salt 

 water they do not drink at all. In the middle of the day they frequently roll in the 

 dust, in saucer-shaped hollows. The males fight together; two one day passed quite 

 close to me, squealing and trying to bite each other; and several were shot with 

 their hides deeply scored. Herds sometimes appear to set out on exploring parties; 

 at Bahia Blanca, where, within thirty miles of the coast, these animals are extremely 

 unfrequent, I one day saw the tracks of thirty or forty, which had come in a direct 

 line to a muddy salt-water creek. They then must have perceived that they were 

 approaching the sea, for they had wheeled with the regularity of cavalry, and had 

 returned in as straight a line as they had advanced." 



The most singular circumstance connected with the guanacos is their 

 Dying Places 



habit of resorting to certain particular spots when they feel their end 



approaching. On this point Darwin observes that "on the banks of the Santa Cruz, 

 in certain circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and always near the 

 river the ground was actually white with bones. On one such spot I counted between 

 ten and twenty heads. I particularly examined the bones; they did not appear 

 as some scattered ones which I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if dragged together 

 by beasts of prey. The animals in most cases must have crawled before dying 



