Binghamton Zoo Animals

Chinchilla

(Chinchilla laniger)
Order: Rodentia
Family: Chinchillidae
Genus: Chinchilla
Species: Chinchilla laniger

HABITAT AND RANGE: Chinchillas live in burrows and among the rocks in semi-arid mountainous habitats located in the Andes of northern Chile. Their range used to be throughout the entire Andes mountain range.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Chinchillas are related to agoutis, guinea pigs and visachas. They have remarkably soft fur, which can be up to 1 ½ inches long. They resemble a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel. Chinchillas are about 10m inches long and have a squirrel-like tail. Females are slightly larger than the male. Their ears are almost hairless, their whiskers are very long and their eyes very large. Their small feet have claws on each of the four toes. They have a remarkable ability to acclimate to their climates. Chinchillas born at 15,000 feet will have smaller ears and tails than those born at 5,000 feet. They have two types of fur: “brush” and “bristle”. The brush fur is lighter than a feather and can have up to 60 individual hairs coming out of a single root. The bristle fur is stiffer and thicker and gives form to the overall coat. Each strand of hair on a chinchilla has 3 color bands: dark, then light, then dark. Chinchillas continually shed their fur and will completely replace it once a year.

ADAPTATIONS: Chinchillas live communally. They prefer burrows or living among the rocks in semi-arid mountain regions. They are primarily nocturnal, but will bask in the evening and morning sun. Before their numbers were decreased, up to 100 chinchillas could be found together.

DIET: They feed almost entirely on coarse grasses and some herbs. Their diet is so poor that they spend almost all their time foraging and eating. In captivity, they cannot be fed too rich of a diet or they may have digestive problems. They get their water from dew and from the plants they eat.

REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Chinchillas mate for life and the female is the dominant of the pair. Mating season is pre-winter and the babies are born in early spring. Courtship begins with the male or female pulling tufts of hair from the other’s body. The gestation period for chinchillas living at 8,000 feet is 115 days and 125 days for those living at 20,000 feet. A litter usually consists of 1-3 young. The female chinchilla weighs less than a rabbit, yet her gestation period is four times as long. The young chinchillas are born fully furred to reduce heat loss, but the mother must lick the babies clean so they can dry before they freeze. They can run around within a few hours, but spend most of their time nestled between their parents. The young will begin to eat solid food in about a week, but are not completely weaned until 7 or 8 weeks old. They become sexually mature in less than a year, which means they are able to breed in the mating season of their first year. A mature domestic female can have between 1-3 litters a year.

STATUS IN WILD: Before Europeans reached South America, the chinchillas provided the Natives with warm clothes. The rich wore robes made of fur while the poor wove blankets from the fur of the chinchillas. The introduction of chinchilla fur to Europe is said to have happened when a Spanish sea captain received a chinchilla fur robe from the Natives, but no gold or gems. He sent the robe to the Queen, hoping it would appease it and indeed it did. Chinchilla fur did not become popular until the 18th century and only in the 19th century did its use become exorbitant. The peak came in 1899 when half a million pelts were exported from Chile alone. Chinchillas became rare in the early 1900s. The South American government put a tariff on the export when their populations were threatened with extinction. This lead to smuggling and a few years later a ban was put on hunting and exporting chinchillas. There were so few left that it was hardly worth hunting them. The government set up farms in the 1920s and the continued existence of the chinchilla was assured. In the 1923, they were first successfully bred outside of South America, in the United States.