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Chinchilla

Mammals

The chinchilla is a small rodent native to the high-altitude Andes mountains of South America, known for its extremely dense, soft fur, among the densest of any mammal, with dozens of hairs growing from each follicle, an adaptation to the cold mountain climate that also made it a major target of the historical fur trade. Wild chinchillas live in colonies among rocky outcrops and crevices at high elevation, are mainly active at dusk and night, and feed on grasses, seeds and other sparse mountain vegetation. Intensive hunting for fur during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries drove wild populations to the brink of extinction, and although the species survives in captivity and as a popular pet worldwide, wild chinchilla populations remain critically endangered, confined to a few fragmented sites in Chile.

Facts
Classification
System (Realm)
Terrestrial 2
Threats
Biological Resource Use 3
Relationship to People
Kept as Pets 3
Living or Extinct
Yes 1
Derived from this species' own Conservation Status: this atlas's IUCN category list has no Extinct value, so a set conservation-status is itself evidence of living status (w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill).
Identification
Distinguishing Appearance
Has the densest fur of any extant terrestrial mammal, with roughly 20,000 hairs per square centimeter and about 50 hairs per follicle. 1
Scientific Name
Chinchilla lanigera and Chinchilla chinchilla 1
Conservation Status
Endangered 1
Connections

Child Taxon Of

Rodentia, Taxa
Source Catalogue of Life

In Biome

Alpine, Biomes
Source Chinchilla (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Chinchilla (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section, opening sentence
    Chinchilla is a genus consisting of two species (Chinchilla chinchilla and Chinchilla lanigera) of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha, native to the Andes Mountains in South America.
  • Conservation section, IUCN listing sentence
    Both species of chinchilla are currently listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a severe population loss approximated at a 90% global population loss since 2001.
  • Description section, fur density sentence
    Chinchillas have the densest fur of all extant terrestrial mammals, with around 20,000 hairs per square centimeter and 50 hairs growing from each follicle.
  • In Biome: Alpine, Wikipedia 'Chinchilla': live in colonies at high elevations up to 4,270 m in the Andes
View the Source
2. Chinchilla (Wikipedia)
native to the Andes Mountains in South AmericaView the Source
3. Wikipedia: Chinchilla
  • threat (MediaWiki batch-API article extract states it plainly)
    By the end of the 19th century, chinchillas had become quite rare after being hunted for their notably soft fur.
  • system (entity description states it plainly, relationship to people)
    Intensive hunting for fur during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries drove wild populations to the brink of extinction, and although the species survives in captivity and as a popular pet worldwide, wild chinchilla populations remain critically endangered, confined to a few fragmented sites in Chile.
View the Source
Catalogue of Life
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of LifeChild Taxon Of: RodentiaView the Source
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