Two guanacos, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

© Floris van Breugel/NPL/Minden Picture

Two guanacos, Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

Prick up your ears and stretch your neck—let's step into the world of guanacos. These creatures, part of the same family as camels, alpacas and llamas, are native to the rugged landscapes of South America. Standing around 110 centimetres tall and weighing up to 90 kilograms, guanacos travel in herds led by a dominant male, accompanied by females and their young.

After a gestation period of around 11 months, females give birth to a single baby—known as a chulengo—which is able to stand and walk within an hour of birth. Their diet, consisting of grasses, shrubs and lichens, enables them to flourish in harsh, mountainous terrain. Guanaco's soft, warm fur—first introduced for textile use in the mid-1900s—is highly prized. It is used to create luxury fabrics and is valued second only to vicuña wool across the Americas.

The guanacos seen in today's image roam freely in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, a place where they thrive in the wild. Established as a National Park in 1959, it covers 181,400 hectares. Visitors to the park can also spot 15 species of birds of prey, along with mammals such as foxes, South Andean deer and pumas.