by Rhea Wood

Created on: November 28, 2009

Chinchillas are tiny, adorable rodents, originally from Chile and parts of Peru. Their natural habitats are dry and mountainous, with severely cold temperatures.

Nobody knows for sure where the name chinchilla comes from, but there are many theories. One theory stems from the name of the indigenous peoples of Peru, who called themselves The Chinchas. According to this theory, the Spanish conquistadors thought that the rodents were small Chinchas, thus leading to the name Chinchilla.

Another theory says that the name chinchilla comes from three ancient words from an old south American language called Quechua. The three words are chin, which means silent, shinchi, which means valiant, and lla which means small. It may have also come from the word chilla, which can be translated to small Zorro.

A chinchilla's fur is grey or white with black stripes. It is the smoothest fur in the world, at least thirty times smoother than human hair. The smoothness of the fur comes from the fact that each individual follicle produces at least a hundred and twenty hairs! Since it is such thick fur, the chinchilla never has a problem with fleas or parasites. Parasites simply cannot live in the fur because the hairs are too close together. To maintain the smoothness of their fur, chinchillas often bathe in sand or dirt.

As you can see, their special fur is very important for the chinchillas. Not only does it protect them against parasites, but it protects them from other predators, too. When it is caught by a predator, the chinchilla is able to easily escape, because the predator ends up with only a few extra hairs in its teeth rather than the chinchilla itself. The massive quantity of fur a chinchilla has means it can spare a good deal of it to a predator's mouth without being harmed.

Chinchillas are nocturnal and very social animals. In the wild, their colonies can number in the hundreds, and can even reach more than five hundred animals. Of course, this sociability makes them excellent pets, as they are very friendly and simple to take care of. Their natural diet consists of wheat, grain, and grasses. When they are pets, they eat the same foods, though they can also be fed a small amount of fruit for a treat.

The chinchilla is currently an endangered animal, because they are hunted for their beautiful fur. Many people want to use their fur for clothes, but since chinchillas are so small, many chinchillas have to be killed for even one coat. In Chile, they had become extinct, but by some miracle, surviving populations were found in 1978. Five years later, the National Reserve for Chinchillas was created. Now, the population of chinchillas in Chile is between 2,500 and 11,700. It is difficult to pin down the exact number, but the happy fact remains that they are recovering.

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