Chinchilla (lat. Chinchilla) a valuable animal for today, the natural habitat of which is a deserted highlands of. This rather rare representative of the genus of rodents was allocated into a special family of chinchilla. Since chinchilla is a source of very beautiful fur, which for many centuries is of interest in entrepreneurs, it has been listed in the Red Book. There are many special farms grown in chinchillas in the world, but hunting for wild animals, unfortunately, has become a common occurrence today.
Description of the chinchilla
The animal’s head placed on a short neck has a rounded shape. Thick soft wool grows throughout the body, pleasant to the touch, with the exception of the tail, which is distinguished by hard hairs. The length of the case is 22-38 cm. The tail is quite long-10-17 cm, observing the animal, it can be noted that the animal often raises the tail vertically, which indicates the indicative function of the tail. The average animal weighs about 700-800 g, the female is more massive than the male. The hind legs of the chinchillas have 4 fingers, and the front are 5, but the rear ones are much more powerful and longer, which provides the maximum height of the jump.
Features of behavior
The chinchillas, for which hunting is constantly being conducted, both in the natural environment and from people, has developed excellent adaptation. They are well oriented on the ground, thanks to large eyes, which are distinguished by a vertical shape of the pupils. Long mustache help to smell any approach of a living creature, and rounded ears, 5-6 cm along the longitudinal axis. The chinchilla easily adapts to the winds and a large amount of sand, since its ears have a special membrane that covers the ear lumen when the animal wants to hide in the sand. Chinchilla has a rather flexible skeleton that allows them to climb into any cracks and plane.
Species signs
Chinchillas are longlivers, in the natural environment they can live up to 20 years, the life expectancy of males and females is about the same. Girls are larger and weigh more, but they are much more fingering, faster go on their hands. They are characterized by a feeling of resentment when a person interacts with their male. Many breeders prefer to contain a whole couple at once. Thanks to fairly strong 20 teeth (16 indigenous + 4 incisors), animals cope with solid food perfectly.
To date, science systematics allocated 2 main types of chinchillas:
The classic animal has a light gray color and a white tummy. Over the past century, up to 40 types of chinchillas have been withdrawn, which differ in both color and behavioral characteristics. The color of modern chinchillas can vary from white to brown and black, including exotic shades, such as: purple, brown, light pink, sapphire.
Habitat
The socalled “country of chinchillas” is considered South America. Shorttailed appearance lives in the Andes of Bolivia, on the north side of Argentina and Chila. A longtailed animal can only be found in the north of the country Chile. Chinchillas feel best in minks and differ in several higher activity in the night. They live hard in one way, as these are colonial animals.
Features of nutrition
Wild chinchillas are not particularly different from other rodents, preferring to use seeds, cereals, bark, moss, legumes, as well as small insects. Homemade animals love to eat apples, carrots, hay, nuts. A large number of feeds that include cereals (wheat, corn, barley, peas) are now being produced now. Animals tolerate dried fruits much better than fresh products, since a large amount of fiber can cause their digestive problems.
Chinchillas animals with character
There are few people know about this, but the chinchillas are monogamous animals and are even prone to resentment when people begin to play with their partner. When the chinchilla begins to tweet, she is unhappy. Clicking teeth and a stand on the hind legs indicates the desire of the chinchilla to attack the offender. After six months, the animals are already entirely sexually mature, females are able to give offspring up to 3 times a year. Pregnancy lasts about 110 days, usually 2 descendants are born, sometimes there may be more. The male takes an active part in raising babies who are born immediately with open eyes and the ability to move.
