How chinchillas got almost exterminated

Without a question, chinchillas are beautiful and cute furry animals with large ears, a long tail and distinctive eyes. Do you know where they actually come from, what their name means and that we almost succeeded in nearly exterminating them before the domestication took place?

Chinchillas originally come from the south-American Andes, where they were one of the most widespread animals of these high mountains only less than 200 years ago. Their territory spread along the west coast over Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Here, in their natural environment, they live at 1500 – 3000 meters above the sea level in large colonies consisting of 15 – 100 individuals, hiding in rock crevices or digging dens. Their name (Chinchilla) is a combination of the words Chin and Chile, which in translation means fur from Chile.

For their characteristically dense and fine fur – this is caused by the individual hair follicles growing a tuft of 40 to 50 hairs – the chinchillas were valued already in the Inka times. Then, however, Europeans got to America and in the 17th century, they started to export the chinchilla’s fur to Europe. Up to 30,000 chinchilla skins were exported from Peru and Chile annually. This hunt took them to the brink of extinction. Following attempts of chinchilla breeding in captivity fell through since the mountain and cold-loving animals used to dryness did not survive sails over the equator where humidity and hot weather reigned. At the beginning of the 20th century, chinchilla was even declared extinct.

But American engineer Matthias F. Chapman believed, that in remote regions of the Andes, some chinchillas could have survived, and after long five years, he managed to find one of the last surviving colonies with the help of a local Indian. Chapman caught 12 chinchillas (only 3 of them were female). He equipped himself with cool boxes for the transport of the animals, so apart from one animal, all of them survived the crossing of the equator, and in 1923, he saw the birth of the first young animals at his farm in California. Today, their blood is present in virtually all the bred chinchillas, while the remnants of the wild chinchillas were granted the deserved protection shortly after: in 1929, the first law for chinchilla protection was issued and the National reservation for chinchillas was established in Chile.

Today, chinchillas are frequently bred all around the world in large private farms. However, only several small colonies survive in the wild, therefore, people try to return them into their original territories. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been very successful.

 

Related articles

How to teach a dog to wear a muzzle

In the life of any dog, a situation might come up, when it is necessary to put on a muzzle. And if the dog is not used to wearing it, it might mean a stressful situation. I will advise you on how to avoid stress and how to get your dog used to wearing...

Don’t underestimate regular veterinary check-ups

Same as in people, also our pets should go to regular check-ups to a doctor. We might neglect this quite often, but it is still something else in animals. A dog or a cat won’t come up to you to tell you, that they’re not feeling well. That’s why an...

Four-legged diabetics

You probably have someone among your friends, who has diabetes. However, do you know, that cats and dogs also suffer from this disease quite often?

What our pets dream about

Do you know, what dreams our pets have? Besides myself, also a number of scientists were interested in this question and they came up with various hypotheses. Would you guess what our four-legged friends dream about?

5 tips for taking pictures of your pets

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.3px 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} All of us surely likes to take pictures of our pets. However, the photographs don’t always turn out according to our...