Chinchilla

🌍 Overview

Chinchillas are native to the high-altitude Andes mountains of South America, where they inhabit rocky terrain at elevations up to 14,000 feet. In the wild they are critically endangered - their extraordinarily dense fur (up to 80 hairs per follicle, versus 2-3 for humans) has been prized for centuries and nearly led to their extinction. Most pet chinchillas descend from a founding population of just 13 animals brought to the United States in 1927.

📋 Quick Facts

📜 History

Around 1900 Chile was shipping an estimated 500,000 chinchilla skins a year, a rate that stripped the mountains within a generation. Breeders had begun keeping the animals in captivity at the end of the nineteenth century, and commercial ranching started in 1920, which is when the supply shifted from hunters to farms. It grew quickly: by 1946 Life magazine reported roughly 200,000 chinchillas being raised on farms across the United States. The pet is a byproduct of that industry, since ranch-raised animals were the only chinchillas anyone could obtain.

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