Daily Almanac for
Oct 13, 2008
Search White Pages
Info search tips
Bio search tips

Encyclopedia

guanaco

guanaco (gwänä'kō) [key]or huanaco (hwän'äko) [key], wild mammal of the camel family, Lama guanicoe, found on arid plains in the Andes Mts. It is about 3 1/2 ft (105 cm) high at the shoulder, with a long neck; it is brown on the back and sides, with light underparts and a dark face. Although previously regarded by some authorities as the ancestor of the domestic llama and alpaca, genetic studies show that only the llama is descended from it. The guanaco is not domesticated, but indigenous South Americans use its flesh for food and make its hide into clothing and other coverings and its bones into various implements. Encroachments on its grazing land have reduced its numbers. The guanaco is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Camelidae.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

    • Cite
    • Print
    • Bookmark

More on guanaco from Infoplease:

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Vertebrate Zoology


Warning: DOMDocument::loadXML(): Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding ! Bytes: 0xD3 0x4E 0x20 0x4D in Entity, line: 1 in /site/html/include/elibrary_search_box.php on line 284
Premium Partner Content
HighBeam Research
Documents Images and Maps Reference
(from Newspapers, Magazines, Journals, Newswires, Transcripts and Books)

Research our extensive archive of more than 28 million documents from 2,600 sources.

Additional search results provided by HighBeam Research, LLC. © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.