I am going to be very impressed if I am able to get today’s Wild Fact out to all of my readers on time. Unfortunately the internet is down in Whitehorse tonight so I am trying to research, write and post today’s fact from my trusty Blackberry. If you are reading this than it worked and I am a very happy camper. Today we are going to look at a cute little rodent that I am sure you will all fall in love with. I am of course talking about the Chinchilla. Due to my internet issues, I was unable to check the Wild Facts archives so hopefully I haven’t already completed a Fact on this furry little rodent in the past. But if I did then enjoy it since two facts are always better than one.

Chinchilla’s are a medium sized rodent native to the Andes Mountains in South America. These peculiar animals are named after the Chinchas tribe that hunted them for their warm, dense fur. In fact Chinchilla literally means “little Chinchas” so I guess they considered these valuable animals to be a part of their tribe. Unfortunately as a result of this hunting, it is fairly rare to find a Chinchilla in their natural habitat. Unless you count the pet stores in North America as their natural habitat in which case you will find them all over the place.

The Chinchilla is a social animal and can often be found in “herds”. I am not going to lie, I sorta of giggle when I think about a herd of Chinchillas. I automatically begin picturing a massive herd of small furry animals running towards you at full force. Although their family groups are technically called “herds” they are actually just a colony of rodents. The gestation period for this particular furred rodent is quite long compared to most other rodent species. Due to the 111 day gestation period the babies are born fully furred with eyes wide open and ready to take on the world.

The baby Chinchillas had better be ready since there are a whole lot of predators just waiting for a nice furry snack. The list includes several birds of prey, skunks, dogs, cats and of course everyone’s favourite, snakes. Luckily they have evolved a couple of interesting defense mechanisms for dealing with these superior predators. You need to be careful when attacking since the Chinchilla is capable of spaying urine at the oncoming predator. I don’t think this does much to the attacker other than surprise them and obviously gross them out since they just got peed on. If this doesn’t dissuade the attack then the Chinchilla is able to release fur from their body. I know this sounds weird but it does work effectively after the rodent has been bitten leaving the predator with nothing more than a furball lodged in their throat. Anyone who has a cat knows exactly how annoying this defense tactic can be.

Well folks, I am hoping that you were able to read and enjoy today’s difficult Wild Fact. Have a great day and I will talk with all of you soon (hopefully). Speaking of that – I will be getting to the comments once my internet is back up and running. Thanks for the patience.