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Article: Rare vicuna wool returning to the market after 20 years: Peru, Loro Piana try to preserve a species.
- Article from:
- Daily News Record
- Article date:
- November 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Conde Nast Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK -- The vicuna, a petite Ilama-like animal, is making a comeback amidst the thin air above timberline in the Peruvian Andes. And officials of the Italian mill Loro Piana say the coveted, down-like undercoat that nearly sealed the animal's fate could now become its salvation.
Hunting reduced vicuna numbers to 5,000 in the mid 1970s. Under strict controls -- the animal was among the first protected by import restrictions of the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 -- populations have now risen to 160,000.
Officials of Loro Piana and the Government of Peru met at the Metropolitan Club here last week to announce the limited recommercialization of vicuna ...