Three vicuņas graze in tall grass in Peru's Pampa Galeras Reserve.

Prized for their soft, fine wool, vicuņas had been hunted to near-extinction by the late 1960s. Government protections in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, and international trade restrictions on vicuņa wool have helped the species rebound. Despite a continued threat from poachers, they are now considered at low risk for extinction.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Wild Cargo: the Business of Smuggling Animals," March 1981, National Geographic magazine)