Animal · Chile
Chinchilla
Chinchilla lanigera — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The chinchilla is a small rodent from the Andes with the densest fur of any land mammal, since up to fifty hairs grow from a single root. That coat keeps it warm in the thin mountain air, and it almost cost the species its survival.
Picture credit: Trurl66 (Public domain) · Guérin Nicolas (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the chinchilla live?
Home: Rocky slopes high in the Andes of northern Chile.
In the wild it lives in these countries: Chile.
Conservation status from the IUCN: endangered.
The short profile
Fully grown: up to 26 cm long, plus a 13 cm tail. It weighs about 0.42 kilograms. On the menu: plants.
The story behind it
Fur that thick has one drawback: water cannot get out of it again. A wet chinchilla stays wet, and the damp coat can grow mould against its skin, so instead of washing the animal rolls in fine volcanic dust, which soaks up grease and dirt and is shaken out again. In the hills it lives in colonies among the rocks, feeds on tough mountain plants and comes out mostly at dusk. The same fur made it one of the most hunted animals in South America, because a single full-length coat swallowed well over a hundred pelts. Wild chinchillas survive today only in a few places in northern Chile, and the species is listed as endangered, even though millions live in cages around the world.
Find it on the globe
Chinchilla is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why do chinchillas bathe in dust?
Their fur is so dense that water cannot dry out of it again, and a damp coat can grow mould. Fine volcanic dust takes up grease and dirt instead and is simply shaken out afterwards.
Are wild chinchillas endangered?
Yes. Hunting for fur nearly wiped them out, and wild colonies now survive only in a few spots in northern Chile, which is why the species counts as endangered. The millions kept as pets are a separate story.
How long does a chinchilla live?
About ten years on average, and well cared for animals can reach twenty. That is long for a rodent of this size, far longer than a rat or a guinea pig.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: