Chinchilla Rat

The chinchilla family, Chinchillidae, contains three genera of South American rodents. The Chinchilla, Chinchilla langer, resembles a short eared, long tailed rabbit. About 38 cm (15 in) long, with a 15 cm (6 in) tall, it weight up to 1 kg (2.2 lb) and feed on seeds, fruits, and herbs.

The chinchilla is bred in North America and Europe for its highly valuable fur, which can be blue, pearl, or grey, with darker marking and yellow white underparts.

Once plentiful in the Andes at elevations of up to 5,500 m (18,000 ft), it has been hunted nearly to extinction for its fur, for which it is now bred on fur farms. The short tailed chinchilla, C. chinchilla, may already be extinct. The three species of mountain viscacha, genus Lagidum, also of the high Andes, have very large ears and long tails.

These social, rock-dwelling animals are hunted for their long, fine, gray to brown fur and their meat. The plains viscacha, lagostomus maximum, found in Argentina, has a body up to 66 cm (27 in) long and somewhat resembles a marmot, with thick, mottled gray fur. It lives in burrows, the holes of which create hazards for range animals.

Other articles: rat matting, mouse, rat breeding.