Appearance
''Chinchilla lanigera'' is smaller ), has more rounded ears, in length), and longer tails than ''Chinchilla chinchilla''; its tail is usually about a third the size of its body compared to 100 mm in ''C. chinchilla''). The number of caudal vertebrae is 23 in ''C. lanigera'', and 20 in ''C. chinchilla''). Average males weigh 369–493 g ) and females weigh 379–450 g ). Domesticated animals are larger than wild ones and more sexually dimorphic, with the female weighing up to 800 g and males up to 600 g .The word ''lanigera'' translates into "bearing a woolen coat", yet chinchillas do not have a woolen coat, but instead one consisting of hair. Their hair is 2–4 cm long, with gray, white, and black bands; it is silky, extremely soft, and firmly adhered to the skin. Up to 75 hairs, 5–11 mm in diameter, emerge together from a single hair follicle. Vibrissae are abundant, strong, long ), and emerge from single follicles. The general color of upper parts is bluish or silvery gray; the underparts are yellowish-white. The tail has long, coarse, gray and black hairs on its dorsal surface, 30–40 mm long near the body, 50–60 mm long near the tip, and form a bristly tuft that exceeds vertebrae by 50 mm
In the wild, they breed between October and December, which are the spring months in the Southern Hemisphere.
Status
The Chilean chinchilla is endangered, with the second-highest conservation priority among Chilean mammals.Habitat
Climate in the chinchillas' habitat is rather harsh, with summer temperatures climbing during the day to up to 30 °C in a shade and dropping to 7 °C at night .References:
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