In the vicuña’s natural habitat of South America, its fleece is called the ‘fibre of the gods’. The Inca civilization, which began around 1200 A.D., reserved vicuña fabrics exclusively for its kings and the seasonal sheering was a ceremony involving the whole community. However, following the Spanish colonization of South America from the end of the 1400s, the vicuña was hunted so intensively that by 1965 the entire population was reduced to only 5,000.