EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

What Guanacos Do

Guanaco (Lama guanicoe), Family Camelidae 
left: Torres del Paine National Park, Chile; right: El Tatio Geysers, Atacama, Chile

Explanation:  Ranging to the far southern tip of South America are these members of the camel family:  the guanaco.  They occur singly or in family groups called harems with a dominant male and multiple females.  

The above photos illustrate that guanacos play a central role in the ecological functioning of their ecosystems.  On the left, a lone female is wandering across the landscape in Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile.  And on the right is shown a dung midden where multiple guanacos deposit their goods; this photo is from El Tatio Geysers in the Atacama of northern Chile (accounting for the vents seen in the background, and no, those are not steaming piles of ... middens).  

So here is what guanacos do:

Guanacos deposit their dung in middens, and also more broadly distributed across the landscape.  Male guanacos are territorial and keep harems, whereas females move more widely across the landscape, depositing dung more broadly.  

The dung provides nitrogen to enhance soil fertility, that then provides for the growth of plants.  The plants become fodder for other herbivores.  

The dung also supplies food and other resources for dung beetles.  The beetles and other insects associated with the dung, in turn, are eaten by some insectivorous birds.  Specifically, for example, Southern Rhea chicks feed on insects associated with guanaco dung middens.  

Guanaco carcasses are eaten by pumas (mountain lions), by Andean condors, and by caracaras (members of the falcon family of birds of prey).  [My video of Andean Condors shows some feeding on a guanaco carcass at 3:04.]

So, in this way, guanacos are a rather essential part of the functioning of the ecosystem, supporting a web of ecological interactions that feed insects, plants, insectivorous and raptorial birds, other herbivores, and the very soil itself!