Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

The range of Chin­chilla chin­chilla in­cludes the Andes of south­ern Peru, Bo­livia, north­west­ern Ar­gentina and north­ern Chile.

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Short-tailed chin­chillas are found in moun­tain shrub and grass­land areas at el­e­va­tions be­tween 3000 and 4500 m. They make their dens in rock crevices.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• mountains

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Short-tailed chin­chillas have a body length of 12 to 13 inches and a tail length of 5 to 6 inches. Fe­males are typ­i­cally larger than males. They may be dis­tin­guished from C. lanig­era by its smaller ears and over­all larger size. In ad­di­tion, Chin­chilla chin­chilla has 20 tail ver­te­brae com­pared to 30 in C. lanig­era.

The soft, dense fur of these chin­chillas is due to the fact that each fol­li­cle has ap­prox­i­mately 60 fine hairs grow­ing from it. The col­oration varies but typ­i­cally con­sists of a bluish, pearl or gray upper coat with black tips on the hairs and a yel­low­ish white un­der­side. The tail is long and cov­ered with coarse hairs. The thick fur helps pro­tect chin­chillas from cold tem­per­a­tures as well as pre­vent water evap­o­ra­tion. The hairs are loosely at­tached, so the an­i­mals may es­cape from preda­tors, like owls or foxes, leav­ing them with a mouth­ful of hair (Roder-Thiede, 1993). Their feet are highly adapted for move­ment on rocks. They have weak hind claws and pads on their feet to pre­vent slip­ping. (Roder-Thiede, 1993)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  0.500 to 0.800 kg

  1.10 to 1.76 lb

• Average mass

  0.600 kg

  1.32 lb

Re­pro­duc­tion

Short-tailed chin­chillas be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture at an av­er­age age of 8 months. Ma­tu­rity may be reached, though, as early as 5.5 months (Nowak, 1999). Mat­ing oc­curs bian­nu­ally. On fur farms, C. lanig­era has been ob­served to come into es­trus every four weeks, when the nor­mally tightly closed vagina opens. Since C. lanig­era and C. chin­chilla are closely re­lated, one may infer that the es­trus cy­cles are sim­i­lar. Fe­males of C. chin­chilla have a 128 day ges­ta­tion pe­riod and 1-2 lit­ters per year. Three lit­ters a year may oc­ca­sion­ally occur (Nowak, 1999). The lit­ter size is fairly small and av­er­age only 1.45 young per a lit­ter. (Nowak, 1999)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Short-tailed chinchillas may have from 1 to 3 litters in the breeding season.

• Breeding season

  Mating occurs biannually.

• Range number of offspring

  1.000 (low)

• Average number of offspring

  1.450

• Average gestation period

  128 days

• Range weaning age

  42.000 to 56.000 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  5.5 (low) months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  8 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  5.5 (low) months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  8 months

Chin­chillas are born fully furred, with teeth and open eyes. They weigh about 35 grams each when born. The neonates im­me­di­ately creep under the mother's body for warmth while she dries them. Fe­males have one pair of in­guinal and two pairs of lat­eral tho­racic mam­mae (Nowak, 1999). The young are able to eat plant food im­me­di­ately (Cock­rum, 1962), which cre­ates a smooth tran­si­tion when being weaned from the mother's milk. Wean­ing oc­curs at about 6 weeks. Moth­ers pro­tect­ing young may act ag­gres­sively by stand­ing up and spit­ting in an in­truder's face. The fe­males are able to mate again one week after birth. (Cock­rum, 1962; Nowak, 1999)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Life span is ap­prox­i­mately 8-10 years in the wild. In cap­tiv­ity, how­ever, chin­chillas may live be­tween 15-20 years.

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  15-20 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  8 to 10 years

Be­hav­ior

These noc­tur­nal an­i­mals may emerge at dusk and dawn to bask in the sun. At night the an­i­mal uses its vib­ris­sae to nav­i­gate in the dark. They may use their whiskers to de­ter­mine if rock crevices are wide enough for pas­sage. If the vib­ris­sae do not bend, the chin­chilla will not get stuck. (In­ter­na­tional Wildlife Coali­tion, 1998).

Fe­males are said to dom­i­nate males. Al­though many sources state that chin­chillas are monog­a­mous, sub­stan­tial ev­i­dence is lack­ing (Nowak, 1999). These an­i­mals live in colonies rang­ing from small, with a few in­di­vid­u­als, to large, with a hun­dred or more. ("In­ter­na­tional Wildlife Coali­tion Species Page", 1998; Nowak, 1999)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• saltatorial
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• social

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The sen­sory or­gans are highly de­vel­oped. The large eyes have ver­ti­cally slit pupils. The ex­ter­nal and mid­dle ear are also large. Short-tailed chin­chillas have long vib­ris­sae, 110 mm, on both sides of the upper lip.

Chin­chilla chin­chilla may make many vo­cal­iza­tions. They give a long warn­ing cry, said to be whis­tle-like, that alerts the group to dan­ger, they make a low coo­ing noise when mat­ing, as well as hiss-and-spit agres­sively. Threats also in­clude growl­ing, chat­ter­ing the teeth, and uri­nat­ing. (Mor­ris, 1965)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Chin­chillas will eat any veg­e­ta­tion, such as grasses and herbs, within their range. The an­i­mal sits up on its hind legs to eat, using its front paws to bring the food to its mouth. Oc­ca­sion­ally, chin­chillas may eat in­sects (Mor­ris, 1965). In dry habi­tats, chin­chillas de­pend on morn­ing dew for water. They also ob­tain water from the flesh and fruit of cacti (Roder-Thiede, 1993). (Mor­ris, 1965; Roder-Thiede, 1993)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• flowers

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Chin­chilla chin­chilla has very valu­able fur, even more so than C. lanig­era. In fact, when its size and weight are con­sid­ered, the fur is the most valu­able in the world. Coats made of wild chin­chilla pelts have sold for up to $100,000. It may take up to 400 pelts to make such a coat. The fur is very sen­si­tive to mois­ture, though, giv­ing it lim­ited dura­bil­ity. Thus, prod­ucts made from chin­chilla fur are lux­ury items.

As soon as the qual­ity of chin­chilla fur was dis­cov­ered, wild pop­u­la­tions were hunted al­most to ex­tinc­tion. Com­mer­cial hunt­ing in north­ern Chile began in 1828 and quickly be­came wide­spread as trap­pers re­al­ized the im­mense prof­its avail­able from chin­chilla fur. Furs were mainly ex­ported to the United States, France, Eng­land and Ger­many (Jimenez, 1996). Chin­chillas had been hunted in the past by In­cans for their fur and meat. Mod­ern trap­ping tech­niques and mar­ket forces, how­ever, have had a much greater im­pact on chin­chilla pop­u­la­tions.

All chin­chillas were trapped, but C. chin­chilla was es­pe­cially sought after be­cause of its higher qual­ity fur and larger size. Dur­ing 1900-09, the num­ber of chin­chilla skins from all species of­fi­cially ex­ported ex­ceeded half a mil­lion per year and the num­ber in­creases if one con­sid­ers the num­ber of an­i­mals whose fur was dam­aged and those il­le­gally ex­ported. The an­i­mals be­came eco­nom­i­cally ex­tinct by 1917. The price of the fur con­tin­ued to rise ex­po­nen­tially, though, in­creas­ing the ben­e­fits to be gained from trap­ping them.

Cur­rently, chin­chilla fur com­monly comes from farm raised an­i­mals. Chin­chillas are raised in cap­tiv­ity through­out the U.S. They are bred for their fur and also sold as pets. Com­meri­cial breed­ing in the U.S. began with 11 an­i­mals brought to Cal­i­for­nia in 1923. How­ever, these an­i­mals were prob­a­bly C. laniger. Wild chin­chillas are still trapped in order to im­prove ge­netic vari­a­tion within do­mes­tic stocks. ("In­ter­na­tional Wildlife Coali­tion Species Page", 1998; Jimenez, 1996)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• body parts are source of valuable material

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known neg­a­tive eco­nomic im­pacts of C. chin­chilla.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The IUCN places the species as crit­i­cally en­dan­gered, not­ing a de­cline of at least 80 per­cent in the past decade be­cause of ex­ploita­tion and habi­tat loss (Nowak, 1999). U.S. ESA lists the species as en­dan­gered under Chin­chilla chin­chilla bo­li­viana>>. (Smith­son­ian In­sti­tu­tion, 1993). Chin­chilla chin­chilla is pre­sumed to be rare, or pos­si­blly ex­tinct, in the wild. While some re­port that the last an­i­mal seen was re­ported in 1953, the IUCN states that C. chin­chilla may still exist in the in­ac­cess­able area where the bor­ders of Ar­gentina, Chile and Bo­livia meet. There have also been un­com­firmed re­ports of C. chin­chilla in north­ern Chile in the Lauca Na­tional Park as late as 1970. The con­di­tions in Bo­livia's Sa­jama Na­tional Park would be ideal for the species' sur­vival but, there is no of­fi­cial record of their pres­ence.

Wild stock is now com­pletely pro­tected. En­force­ment proves dif­fi­cult, though, be­cause of the re­mote areas in which the an­i­mals live. The high value of their fur cre­ates an in­cen­tive for trap­pers to risk break­ing the law. In the past, the pro­tec­tion of chin­chillas has ac­tu­ally re­sulted in a great in­crease in the price of fur. For ex­am­ple, the 1910 treaty be­tween Chile, Bo­livia, Peru and Ar­gentina had this ef­fect and trap­ping for fur con­tin­ued de­spite the ban (Jimenez, 1996). Ef­fec­tive pro­tec­tion of C. chin­chilla would in­clude the de­tec­tion of any wild pop­u­la­tions and their pro­tec­tion by trained per­ma­nent guards (IUCN, 1982).

It is un­likely that C. chin­chilla is as threat­ened by a loss of habi­tat as C. lanig­era. It is im­por­tant to note, though, that human ac­tiv­i­ties such as min­ing, fire­wood ex­trac­tion, and graz­ing by goats and cat­tle, have the po­ten­tial to fur­ther dec­i­mate wild pop­u­la­tions. Even­tu­ally, it may also be threat­ened by burn­ing and har­vest­ing of the al­gar­ro­billa shrub (Bal­samo­car­pon bre­v­i­folium) and per­haps from com­pe­ti­tion with species of the gen­era Octodon and Abro­coma (Nowak, 1999). Other fac­tors such as small vi­able pop­u­la­tion size, pre­da­tion by foxes, and long term bi­otic and abi­otic changes also in­flu­ence vi­a­bil­ity of chin­chilla pop­u­la­tions.

At­tempts at rein­tro­duc­tion have not been sucess­ful. Fur­ther stud­ies on re­pro­duc­tion and pat­terns af­fect­ing pop­u­la­tion den­sity would be ben­e­fi­cial to these ef­forts. ("The IUCN Mam­mal Red Data Book; Part I", 1982; Jimenez, 1996; Nowak, 1999)

• IUCN Red List

  Critically Endangered
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Critically Endangered
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix I

Other Com­ments

Chin­chilla chin­chilla and C. lanig­era were for­merly con­sid­ered one species until some re­searchers rec­og­nized size and color dif­fer­ences among lo­cal­i­ties. Since the wild pop­u­la­tions of C. chin­chilla are rare, it may not be pos­si­ble to fur­ther study this tax­o­nomic issue. They are cur­rently con­sid­ered sep­a­rate species based on eco­log­i­cal and mor­pho­log­i­cal data (IUCN, 1982). The species may have co­ex­isted in the north­ern part of the range of C. lanig­era and the south­ern range of C. chin­chilla (Jimenez, 1996). Male hy­brids from the two species are ster­ile but fe­males are fer­tile and may mate with males from ei­ther of the species. Al­though male off­spring from a fe­male hy­brid are likely to be in­fer­tile as well (Mor­ris, 1965).

In the U.S., it may be pos­si­ble to raise C. chin­chilla in cap­tiv­ity. Though most ef­forts to date have failed. Most of the chin­chillas in cap­tiv­ity in South Amer­ica are C. chin­chilla (Mor­ris, 1965).

Con­trib­u­tors

Holly Kopack (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

1982. The IUCN Mam­mal Red Data Book; Part I. Old Wok­ing, Sur­rey: Unwin Broth­ers Lim­ited, The Gre­sham Press.

"Comp­ton's En­cy­clo­pe­dia On­line: Chin­chilla" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 21, 1999 at http://​www.​optonline.​com/​plweb-cgi/​fastweb?​getdoc+view1+all002+1061+0++chinchilla.

1998. "In­ter­na­tional Wildlife Coali­tion Species Page" (On-line). Ac­cessed Nove­me­ber 16, 1999 at http://​iwc.​org/​volunteers/​archives/​July98/​spec_​pg0.​htm.

"Oak­land Zoo: Chin­chilla" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 16, 1999 at http://​oakzoo.​cea.​edu/​atoz/​azchchla.​html.

Cock­rum, E. 1962. In­tro­duc­tion to Mam­mal­ogy. New York: The Ronald Press Com­pany.

Grz­imek, B. 1990. Grz­imek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals: Vol. 3. New York: Mc­Graw-Hill Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

Hay­sen, V., A. Van Tien­hoven, A. Van Tien­hoven. 1993. As­dell's Pat­terns of Mam­malian Re­pro­duc­tion: A Com­pendium of Species Spe­cific Data. Ithaca and Lon­don: Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity Press.

Jimenez, J. 1996. The Ex­tir­pa­tion and Cur­rent Sta­tus of Wild Chin­chillas Chin­chilla lanig­era and C. bre­vi­cau­data. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion, 77: 1-6.

Miller, S., J. Rottmann, K. Raedeke, R. Taber. 1983. En­dan­gered Mam­mals of Chile: Sta­tus and Con­ser­va­tion. Bi­o­log­i­cal Con­ser­va­tion, 25: 335-52.

Mor­ris, D. 1965. The Mam­mals: A Guide to the Liv­ing Species. New York and Evanston: Harper & Row Pub­lish­ers.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World; 6th Edi­tion, Vol. II. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Red­ford, K., J. Eisen­berg. 1989. Mam­mals of the Neotrop­ics: the South­ern Cone, Vol. 2; Chile, Ar­gentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Chicago and Lon­don: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

Roder-Thiede, M. 1993. Chin­chillas: A Com­plete Pet Owner's Man­ual. Hong Kong: Bar­ron's Ed­u­ca­tional Se­ries.