Chinchilla Origins

Habitat of chinchilla lanigeraChinchillas originate from high altitudes in Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Peru in South America.  The Inca nobility wore chinchilla fur and with the coming of the Spanish invaders and other Europeans, these animals were hunted almost to extinction.

Chinchillas were named after the native Chincha Indians who used to eat them and use their fur.  Chinchilla fur is amongst the most rare and expensive in the world.  It takes 100 pelts to make a coat.  In the 19th century, demand from the European and American markets drove the chinchilla population almost to the brink of extinction.

Before the alarmed governments of Chile, Bolivia, Peru & Argentina imposed a ban on their hunting, an estimated 21 million had been killed for their fur.  Even with this ban, it has been a sever challenge for the wild chinchilla to repopulate these areas as they produce only one or two babies per litter with a gestation period of 111 days.

Habitat of chinchilla brevicaudataSave the Wild Chinchillas is a conservation organisation working to preserve the chinchillas wild habitat.  Their site contains useful information about the diet of the wild chinchilla and what can be done to protect them in the wild.

The pet chinchillas we have today owe their origins to a mining engineer named Mathias F Chapman who, in 1923, succeeded in bringing 11 live chinchillas to America by bringing them down the mountains slowly enough to allow them to acclimatise.  The ship to California also carried ice to keep the chinchillas cool.  One female even gave birth whilst on board. 

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