
Benito A. GonzálezUniversity of Chile · Departamento de Gestión Forestal y su Medio Ambiente
Benito A. González
PhD, Assistant Professor Universidad de Chile and South American Camelids Specialist Group (SSC/IUCN)
About
76
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Introduction
I am PhD in Forestry, Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences in Chile, Assistant Professor at the Universidad de Chile and Chair of South American Camelids Specialist Group of the IUCN. My interest is focused on ecology, evolution, management and conservation of Andean and Patagonian ungulates with emphasis in Guanaco and Vicuña.
Additional affiliations
May 2014 - present
December 1995 - December 2004
March 2005 - May 2014
Publications
Publications (76)
Although the incorporation of mammalian hair in nest construction for thermal insulation has been extensively documented among birds, the kleptotrichy—where birds pluck hair directly from living mammals—remains a relatively underreported behaviour in the scientific literature. Our camera trap monitoring effort in Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National P...
The success of conservation programs for the taruka (Hippocamelus antisensis d’Orbigny), an endemic and endangered deer, depends on many factors, highlighting anthropogenic and ecological effects. Among the latter, how this herbivore interacts with forage resources is important. The objective of the study was to describe the main attributes of the...
El presente documento es resultado del trabajo colaborativo y voluntario de un conjunto de organizaciones y personas, quienes – en octubre de 2020 - conformaron un grupo de trabajo con el objetivo de realizar una planificación estratégica para la conservación del guanaco en Chile central, donde la especie se encuentra clasificada como Vulnerable
The increased availability of quality genomic data has greatly improved the scope and resolution of our understanding of the recent evolutionary history of wild species adapted to extreme environments and their susceptibility to anthropogenic impacts. The guanaco (Lama guanicoe), the largest wild ungulate in South America, is a good example. The gu...
Ecological connectivity is key for the long-term viability of species and is necessary when facing disturbance or global change, and geospatial analysis tools are key to exploring it with conservation aims. The vicuña is an ungulate endemic from South American highlands that faced extinction risk fifty years ago and is now slowly expanding and incr...
We here describe Andean Condors' (Vultur gryphus) use of the biggest landfill in Chile as a food source. We monitored the landfill between 2005 and 2022. Until 2013, there was an increase in the number of condors present in the landfill. Then the number decreased until 2016, coincident with an abundant food supply on a large spatial scale, due to h...
Normally, industrial forest landscapes are mosaics of different exotic and native vegetation patches, and, depending on their structural and functional diversity, they may be able to support potentially important biodiversity. In Central Chile, there are 3.1 million hectares of exotic forest plantations, and these environments are included as habit...
Human activities associated with roads are frequently perceived to be negative for ungulates in arid environments because they may affect the use of feeding areas. Here, we focused on the behavior of vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), which feeds in four different, high-altitude wetlands affected by human activities (tourism, ranching, poaching and undistur...
Monitoring the illegal trade of wool fibres of wild vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) and guanaco (Lama guanicoe) is highly desirable. The high market value of fleece from these camelid species poses a threat to their wild populations. A previous study showed that direct analysis in real-time time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART-TOFMS) effectively identif...
Following a drastic population decline of guanaco populations throughout the 1970s in Argentina and the Chilean Patagonia, the Chilean government, in collaboration with national and international researchers, accrued increased scientific knowledge of the species. These efforts contributed to meaningful protection and conservation measures, initiall...
The vicuña (the wild camelid Vicugna vicugna) has a successful history of population recovery. The Vicuña Convention and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Wild Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) promotes sustainable use of the species focused on fibre production for the benefit of Andean communities, such as those inhabiting the A...
Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a “Green List of Species” (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species’ progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 s...
Migration of ungulates (hooved mammals) is a fundamental ecological process that promotes abundant herds, whose effects cascade up and down terrestrial food webs. Migratory ungulates provide the prey base that maintains large carnivore and scavenger populations and underpins terrestrial biodiversity (fig. S1). When ungulates move in large aggregati...
Although guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are widely distributed throughout much of their historic range, they are often restricted to small, isolated populations that are at risk of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity. Here we document and interpret baseline patterns of genetic variation in a guanaco population inhabiting in the Bolivian Chaco that i...
Extensive livestock production and urbanization entail modifications of natural landscapes, including installation of fences, development of agriculture, urbanization of natural areas, and construction of roads and infrastructure that, together, impact native fauna. Here, we evaluate the diversity and genetic structure of endemic guanacos (Lama gua...
Rationale
The keratin fleece of the endangered vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) commands a high value in international markets, and this trade has caused illegal poaching and a substantial decrease of vicuña populations. Morphological analysis of hairs does not have the resolution to determine the species of origin of camelid natural fibers. In addition, c...
Background:
Despite their regional economic importance and being increasingly reared globally, the origins and evolution of the llama and alpaca remain poorly understood. Here we report reference genomes for the llama, and for the guanaco and vicuña (their putative wild progenitors), compare these with the published alpaca genome, and resequence s...
A molecular genetic protocol for distinguishing pure and hybrid South American camelids was developed to provide strong, quantifiable, and unbiased species identification. We detail the application of the approach in the context of a criminal case in the Andes Mountains of central Chile where the defendants were alleged to have illegally hunted thr...
This edited book compiles and summarizes researches in different topics about the southern vicuña (Vicugna vicugna vicugna) in South America.
Protocolo realizado para atención de urgencia de guanacos (Lama guanicoe) ante contingencia de la region de Valparaíso del 2020.
The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is the most representative wild ungulate of the high Andes of South America with two recognized morphological subspecies, V. v. mensalis in the north and V. v. vicugna in the south of its distribution. Current vicuña population size (460,000–520,000 animals) is the result of population recovery programs established in r...
Background
The main goal of this contribution was to define the ecological niche of the guanaco ( Lama guanicoe ), to describe potential distributional changes, and to assess the relative importance of niche conservatism and divergence processes between the two lineages described for the species ( L.g. cacsilensis and L.g. guanicoe ).
Methods
We u...
Fig S1. Pairwise correlations across bioclimatic variables.
Pairwise correlation values from bioclimatic variables at guanaco occurrence locations in Chile. Bioclimatic variables are from Worldclim version 1.4. BIO1: Annual mean temperature; BIO2: Mean diurnal range; BIO3: Isothermality; BIO4: Temperature seasonality; BIO5: Max temperature of warme...
Fig S3. Geographic distribution model for L. guanicoe and its lineages.
Base Map Elevation Data: CIAT-CSI SRTM (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org).
Location of Lama guanicoe in Chile.
Each data point indicates positive occurrence of Lama guanicoe within the administrative boundaries of Chile. Each data point is labeled by the lineage and source of collection.
Fig S2. AUC Jackknife analysis.
AUC Jackknife analysis for the environmental variables used in the current distribution models generation of L. guanicoe (LG) and its lineage in Chile (LGC = L.g. cacsilensis; LGG = L.g. guanicoe; MP = Mixed population). The variables are Bio1 = Annual mean temperature; Bio4 = Temperature seasonality; Bio7 = Temperat...
Protected areas help to decrease human impacts on threatened mammals but do not always include species’ core habitats. Here we focus on the Vulnerable taruka Hippocamelus antisensis near the Atacama Desert, Chile, a population that is mainly threatened by interactions with local human communities. We develop a species distribution model for taruka...
Growth of wild ungulate populations within protected areas can cause an expansion towards surrounding non-protected areas and lead to conflicts with human activities. The spatial and demographic structure of colonizing populations inform about their state and potential trends, since the initial colonization by dispersing individuals precedes the es...
Background. A fundamental problem in the biogeography of climate change is to understand and predict how environmental factors determine whether organisms will alter their seasonal activities, home ranges, migratory patterns, abundances, and interspecific interactions. The main goal of this contribution was to define the ecological niche of the gua...
Recientemente el guanaco ha sido clasificado como
de Preocupación Menor en la Lista Roja de la UICN.
Tanto el tamaño poblacional global, calculado entre
1.000.000 y 1.500.000 de individuos adultos, como
la tendencia numérica creciente, justifican esta
clasificación. No obstante, diferencias notorias en
las abundancias de cada país, ya que el 81 – 8...
Feral domestic ungulates may compete with the populations of wild herbivores with which they coexist, particularly so in arid regions. The potential competition between wild camelids and feral donkeys at the eastern sector of the Atacama Desert is evaluated in terms of their coincidence or segregation in habitat use and complemented with a comparis...
Wildlife forensic science in the investigation of poaching of vicuña - Volume 50 Issue 1 - Benito A. González, Juan Carlos Marín, Victor Toledo, Edgard Espinoza
2014 was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of
the IUCN Red List. Over this period of time, the
Red List has played a key role in the assessment
of the conservation status of endangered species at
global scale. Similarly, since its inception in 1971,
the GECS has contributed to the conservation and
recovery of guanacos and vicunas. Among the
c...
Fifteen guanacos were introduced to Staats Island in the Falklands/Malvinas archipelago from Patagonia in the 1930s. Twenty five years later, the population was culled from 300 to 10-20 individuals, but quickly rebounded to a population of almost 400 animals that today retain the genetic signature of the founding event and later bottleneck. The goa...
We report a sighting of an adult White-throated Hawk (Buteo albigula) in Belén, (18°28' S, 69°31' W; 3200 m a.s.l.), northernmost Chile. Based on the date of this sighting (April), the absence of previous reports in the region, and its presence in a habitat distinct from those where this bird has been observed in both breeding or non-breeding seaso...
Niche description and differentiation at broad geographic scales have been recent major topics in ecology and evolution. Describing the environmental niche structure of sister taxa with known evolutionary trajectories stands out as a useful exercise in understanding niche requirements. Here we model the environmental niche structure and distributio...
Competition arises when two co-occuring species share a limiting resource. Potential for competition is higher when species have coexisted for a short time, as it is the case for herbivores and livestock introduced in natural systems. Sheep, introduced in the late 19(th) century in Patagonia, bear a great resemblance in size and diet to the guanaco...
A comprehensive study of the phylogeography and population genetics of the largest wild artiodactyl in the arid and cold-temperate South American environments, the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) was conducted. Patterns of molecular genetic structure were described using 514 bp of mtDNA sequence and 14 biparentally inherited microsatellite markers from 314...
El Suri (Pterocnemia pennata tarapacensis) es una especie muy conspicua y característica del altiplano del Norte de Chile. A pesar de lo anterior, hasta hace algunos años no se contaba con una estimación poblacional total para este taxón en Chile, y los censos existentes eran muy localizados y mostraban tendencias erráticas. Por lo anterior, entre...
While allonursing, the provision of milk to non-offspring by females, involves a potential cost to their own offspring, allosuckling, the suckling from females other than their own mothermay allow offspring to compensate for previous deficiencies in maternal milk. We tested this hypothesis in farmed guanacos. Under the compensation hypothesis we pr...
Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) is a protected and widely distributed ungulate in South America. A poacher, after killing guanacos in Valle Chacabuco, Chilean Patagonia, transported and stored the meat. Samples were retrieved by local police but the suspect argued that the meat was from a horse. Mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (774 pb), 15 loci microsate...
Females in several ungulates transfer milk to non-filial (NF) offspring, in a process known as allonursing. This behavior is less common in monotocous species, including most ungulates, and it has been associated with parasitic behavior of calves or mothers who have lost their own offspring. To examine whether the calves ‘steal’ milk from the femal...
We present the results of a palaeogenetic analysis of two Late Pleistocene camelids originating in southern Chile. Our analysis of two mitochondrial DNA fragments (control region and cytochrome b gene) reveals that these specimens do not belong to an extinct taxon, but rather to extant vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), whose modern distribution is restrict...
Since 1994 wild vicuñas have been captured and shorn for their wool, yet, there remains a noticeable lack of data regarding the possible influence of capture and shearing upon vicuña biology. Therefore, we assessed post-capture group composition, genetic relatedness, and paternity among animals that were captured for live shearing and release. We c...
Although allosuckling, the lactation of non-filial offspring, can be a costly behavior, it has been reported in several species across a wide range of mammalian orders. Monotocous species such as ungulates exhibit this behavior less frequently than polytocous species, and most cases have been reported among captive specimens. A case of allosuckling...
Polydactylism, a genetic defect characterized by partial or complete duplication of the digit, has been described in a wide range of vertebrates. Among ungulates, polydactyly appears to be relatively common in domestic camelids, with reports in dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius), llama (Lama glama) and alpaca (Vicugna pacos). However, in wild S...
Guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are the most important native herbivorous species in the South American steppes and the dominant ungulate in a fauna rich in rodents but poor in large mammal species. Between 2 and 4 subspecies are usually recognized within Lama guanicoe, based on subtle morphological differences and geographic distribution. To evaluate whe...
Four camelid species exist in South America: two wild, the guanaco (Lama guanicoe) and the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna), and two domestic, the alpaca (Lama pacos) and the llama (Lama glama). However, the origin of the domestic species has been a matter of debate. In the present study, variations in chromosome G banding patterns and in two mitochondrial...
We review the status of the four currently recognized guanaco Lama guanicoe subspecies, and provide information about their taxonomy and distribution. The success of guanaco in inhabiting open habitats of South America is based mainly on the flexibility of their social behaviour and ecophysiological adaptations to harsh environments.
Lönnberg descr...
Current procedures for ranching and sustainable use of guanacos necessitate their transport. Transportation is a risky process for animals, and is a particular concern for wild-caught or semi-domesticated species such as the guanaco - a wild South American camelid species increasingly being established on farms in Chile and Argentina. This study in...
The rearing and maintenance of wildvicuas in semi-captivity for economicutilization is practiced mainly in Peru, butArgentina, Bolivia, and Chile are quicklydeveloping their own programs of economic use. Large scale rearing practices will likelyisolate populations and may foster selectivebreeding. In addition to these concerns, thereare also uncert...
The purpose of this study was to describe haematological and blood biochemistry findings of farmed guanacos in central Chile, in order to establish reference values for this species in captivity. Haematological and clinical biochemical measurements were performed on blood and plasma respectively, from 40 clinically healthy guanacos (20 females and...
Castration is a routine procedure for male farm animals. The ethics of castration are widely debated because the procedure may potentially result in pain and distress. The indications for early castration in farmed guanacos are: 1) prevention of aberrant behaviour in human-imprinted males, 2) elimination of inter-male aggression, so that males may...
Este trabajo tiene como objetivo caracterizar la diversidad avifaunística de la Hacienda Loncha en un contexto de un paisaje intervenido y proponer estrategias de manejo de ecosistema y restauración de hábitats para aumentar la biodiversidad local, apoyando la creación del Parque Ecológico Los Cobres de Loncha. Para ello se realizó una campaña de t...
The guanaco was widely utilized by the indigenous cultures of South America until a decrease in populations during the last century in Chile, attributable to the intensification of farming activity, the reduction of the habitat available and an increase in hunting pressure. After a successful guanaco conservation program, the population tripled in...