Domestication versus wild chinchillas (tw:some talk about fur farms.)

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
tcraighenry

tcraighenry

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
728
Location
Portland, OR
My husband and I were talking the other day about domesticated chinchillas versus wild chinchillas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchilla

I guess the species that domesticated chinchillas come from is the chinchilla lanigera and both are facing extinction.

Domestication worked out pretty well for cats and dogs in particular! Become useful to people, be cute and be looked after :)

But what about keeping an endangerd species as a pet? There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of info about where pet chinchillas come from (other than the Chinchas had them as pets too <3) but I'm assuming from fur farms? And does the want for pet chinchillas further endanger them in the wild?

As a side note, it kills me when I Google for chinchilla supplies or info and Nordstrom fur products and the like come up :(
 
We're not keeping an endangered species as a pet. If we were talking a species like parrots, which are often wild-caught, and that species was facing extinction, then yes, that could be a problem. But the chins we know and love are nothing like the chins facing extinction. Ever seen a picture of one of the wild chins? They don't look like one of our pet chins stuck over in the Andes mountains.

All of our pet chins are coming from breeders around the country, whether they're backyard breeders or quality breeders doesn't make a difference - none of these people are importing chins from the Andes, causing those populations to decrease. While I can't say for certain, I wouldn't think anyone would be taking chins from their native habitat now. Even with the want for pet chins - all those pets are still coming from breeders, and while some breeders may be importing lines from other countries, those still are going to be well-bred lines, not wild chinchillas.

Pet chinchillas are here, like you said, mainly because of the people who breed them and pelt them for fur coats. I, personally, am thankful that someone wanted to do that, otherwise we wouldn't have the chins we have today. But even then, when that was all started, I believe Chapman only brought 12 chinchillas from their native habitat to breed. I don't know if more were brought over time, but the desire for pelts and pets, as it currently stands, is not endangering the wild chinchilla.

I couldn't tell you exactly what is endangering the wild chinchilla - maybe the fact that they can have, at most, two litters per year, and litters are small. And think about how kits die here, when they have all the care they could want and more. We've had to handfeed kits from time to time - those kits would have simply died in the wild. Obviously, no one wants the wild chinchilla to become extinct, but at the same time, I don't think we're doing anything to cause their extinction.
 
From what I've seen, the photos up of "wild chinchillas" are usually viscachas, from the same family but not what domesticated chinchillas are.

The BBC has some footage of chinchilla lanigera which are what we have as pets:
(Baby wild chinchilla!!!) http://www.arkive.org/long-tailed-chinchilla/chinchilla-lanigera/video-09c.html

Giving birth in the wild :O (Maybe?)
http://www.arkive.org/long-tailed-chinchilla/chinchilla-lanigera/video-09b.html

Southern viscacha:
http://www.arkive.org/southern-viscacha/lagidium-viscacia/

chinchilla lanigera
http://www.arkive.org/long-tailed-chinchilla/chinchilla-lanigera/image-G122390.html

Edit: the beeb isn't actually all that specific of those being domesticated or not. I'm guessing the former.
 
Last edited:
We had some dumb a$$ breeder on CNQ who thought she would breed domestic chinchillas and release them into the wild in Chile, like that would work. Mine need a maid/mother (me) to get through life in one piece, let them loose in the wild? Think apples and oranges, domestic and wild chins, IMO.
 
ticklechin said:
We had some dumb a$$ breeder on CNQ who thought she would breed domestic chinchillas and release them into the wild in Chile, like that would work. Mine need a maid/mother (me) to get through life in one piece, let them loose in the wild? Think apples and oranges, domestic and wild chins, IMO.
Click to expand...


LOL that is great chin I wonder if I can do that with my kids. I guess it is not common knowledge that once you domesticate an animal it no longer can survive in the wild. This is why at rescues where they have to release animals back into the wild they take months in training them with skills that they will need in the wild. Even with this training releases do not always happen and when they are may not be successful. **** maybe we should do that with sheep as well, they use to have horns before we came along....
 
ticklechin said:
We had some dumb a$$ breeder on CNQ who thought she would breed domestic chinchillas and release them into the wild in Chile, like that would work. Mine need a maid/mother (me) to get through life in one piece, let them loose in the wild? Think apples and oranges, domestic and wild chins, IMO.
Click to expand...

LOL oh god. There was a thing a while back where PETA "freed" a bunch of minks who were bred in captivity. All of them died.

With as delicate as domestic chins are, I can't imagine they'd survive very long.

(Though there was that little guy someone rescued in Texas <3)
 
greychins said:
While I can't say for certain, I wouldn't think anyone would be taking chins from their native habitat now. Even with the want for pet chins - all those pets are still coming from breeders, and while some breeders may be importing lines from other countries, those still are going to be well-bred lines, not wild chinchillas.

Pet chinchillas are here, like you said, mainly because of the people who breed them and pelt them for fur coats. I, personally, am thankful that someone wanted to do that, otherwise we wouldn't have the chins we have today. But even then, when that was all started, I believe Chapman only brought 12 chinchillas from their native habitat to breed. I don't know if more were brought over time, but the desire for pelts and pets, as it currently stands, is not endangering the wild chinchilla.

I couldn't tell you exactly what is endangering the wild chinchilla - maybe the fact that they can have, at most, two litters per year, and litters are small. And think about how kits die here, when they have all the care they could want and more. We've had to handfeed kits from time to time - those kits would have simply died in the wild. Obviously, no one wants the wild chinchilla to become extinct, but at the same time, I don't think we're doing anything to cause their extinction.
Click to expand...

This is pretty good (but warning, it gets a little gruesome towards the end:)
http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/trade_chinchillas.php

http://www.chinchillaclub.com/members/mag/0602save.html

I guess they put explosives in the habitat :( and still hunt them for fur.

I know if I threw Vincenza into the Andes she wouldn't survive. For one she's way too coddled and spoiled! But I kind of wonder about the perception, I guess, if owning something that has endangered close relatives.

And after having her for just a few months, I know I'd hate to see them lgo extinct. I guess I feel kind of obligated to check it out.

And domestication worked out for these little guys! :)
 
I read that they trapped some of the brevies to breed with the captive chinchillas to introduce some new genes to the gene pool, interesting.
 
The pet chinchilla industry is completely separate from the wild chinchillas. No one goes and captures a wild chinchilla and tries to domesticate it when we have quite a few chinchillas in captivity already.

There is a breeder in WA that claims she got a chinchilla from a pet person that had it imported from South America. I checked into it and according to the departments down there, it is absolutely 100% illegal to capture any wild chinchillas or transport them out of the country. The lady claimed that they obtained a permit to catch a single wild chinchilla to bring home and according to the government they do not issue permits to capture wild chinchillas. Knowing the breeder, I feel she was deceived by someone with a rescue chinchilla that they couldn't find a home for and wanted $$$$ for.

Brevies are Brevicaudata. There are three body types for chinchillas (they aren't separate species) Brevicaudata, Lanigera and Costina. Our domestic chinchillas came mostly as the Lanigera type, but a few Costina were brought in and we breed our domestic chinchillas towards the preferred Brevi type. According to a few people I know that have been to the Andes and seen and touched the wild chinchillas down there in a special nature habitat, the brevi's have fur much thicker than any of our domestic chinchillas due to the higher altitude that they live in. The brevi's are extinct in the wild and only exist on nature preserves today. This is the only "desirable" fur type that anyone would try to catch in the wild today. The costina and lanigera have thinner, weaker fur that is undesirable in the fur trade. Only idiots with no knowledge of the fur trade would try to capture endangered species and there are fur farms in South America...they have no need for capturing wild chinchillas down there.
 
i always thought that Costina was a sub-type under Lanigera? along with La Plata and Raton, the other two sub-types under Lanigera. am i incorrect?
 
This is what I read about the idiots.

The species is on Appendix I of CITES, and has been protected by law in Chile since 1929, although, as mentioned above, this law has proved difficult to enforce. Currently, almost all chinchilla fur comes from farmed animals, and recent improvements in the quality of captive chinchilla fur has reduced pressure on the remaining wild populations. However, it is also likely that the commercial breeding activities have stimulated the demand for live wild chinchillas to improve the genetic variability of captive stocks. Indeed, several of the eleven wild short-tailed chinchillas captured in 2001 were transferred to a breeding programme in which they were used to boost the genetic diversity of the captive population. Although there is no specific conservation programme in place for the short-tailed chinchilla, the US-based conservation organisation Save the Wild Chinchillas is focusing on raising awareness of the two chinchilla species, promoting research, and conserving wild populations of the long-tailed chinchilla.


http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=57
 
ChinnyMom said:
i always thought that Costina was a sub-type under Lanigera? along with La Plata and Raton, the other two sub-types under Lanigera. am i incorrect?
Click to expand...

Lanigera is in between Costina and Brevicaudata. Brevicaudata live at the highest altitude and are the largest with the thickest coats. Costina live at the lowest altitude and are more wedgy and weak furred. Lanigera lives between the two and has features in between the other two. Lanigera is thought to have arisen from where the Costina and Brevicaudata territories overlapped.

Raton is related to chinchillas like the viscaca but not a subtype of chinchillas. I have not heard "La Plata" before. Keep in mind that wikipedia is not a good source. Anyone can write anything they want on there. Chinchilla Raton are not Chinchilla Lanigera.

Dawn, from what I understand, they only have a handful of brevi chins on the nature preserves. They've all but given up on "preserving" the wild brevi. They were hunted so hard, so fast that they are believed to have been wiped out. I know when a couple ranchers went down there, a nature preserve was thrilled to have just two brevis (both the same gender unfortunately). There have been reports of brevi chinchillas in the areas they are supposed to have been hunted out of, but none of the reports have been confirmed. I also read about a report a few years ago that a population of 500 chinchillas was found in a remote area, but I was never able to find the article again.
 
RDZCRanch said:
The pet chinchilla industry is completely separate from the wild chinchillas. No one goes and captures a wild chinchilla and tries to domesticate it when we have quite a few chinchillas in captivity already.

There is a breeder in WA that claims she got a chinchilla from a pet person that had it imported from South America. I checked into it and according to the departments down there, it is absolutely 100% illegal to capture any wild chinchillas or transport them out of the country. The lady claimed that they obtained a permit to catch a single wild chinchilla to bring home and according to the government they do not issue permits to capture wild chinchillas. Knowing the breeder, I feel she was deceived by someone with a rescue chinchilla that they couldn't find a home for and wanted $$$$ for.

Brevies are Brevicaudata. There are three body types for chinchillas (they aren't separate species) Brevicaudata, Lanigera and Costina. Our domestic chinchillas came mostly as the Lanigera type, but a few Costina were brought in and we breed our domestic chinchillas towards the preferred Brevi type. According to a few people I know that have been to the Andes and seen and touched the wild chinchillas down there in a special nature habitat, the brevi's have fur much thicker than any of our domestic chinchillas due to the higher altitude that they live in. The brevi's are extinct in the wild and only exist on nature preserves today. This is the only "desirable" fur type that anyone would try to catch in the wild today. The costina and lanigera have thinner, weaker fur that is undesirable in the fur trade. Only idiots with no knowledge of the fur trade would try to capture endangered species and there are fur farms in South America...they have no need for capturing wild chinchillas down there.
Click to expand...

From what I was reading poaching and habitat encroachment is still a problem for chinchillas in the Andes.

The IUCN Mammal Red Data Book stated, however, that "hunting of chinchillas still continues," and the highly endangered Short-tailed Chinchilla, whose fur is more valuable than that of the other species, was avidly pursued (Thornback and Jenkins 1982). This species has not been bred in captivity, and domestic animals represent hybrids between the two species. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the Long-tailed Chinchilla as Vulnerable, and the Short-tailed Chinchilla as Critically Endangered.
Click to expand...

http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/trade_chinchillas.php
 
RDZCRanch said:
Brevies are Brevicaudata. There are three body types for chinchillas (they aren't separate species) Brevicaudata, Lanigera and Costina. Our domestic chinchillas came mostly as the Lanigera type, but a few Costina were brought in and we breed our domestic chinchillas towards the preferred Brevi type. According to a few people I know that have been to the Andes and seen and touched the wild chinchillas down there in a special nature habitat, the brevi's have fur much thicker than any of our domestic chinchillas due to the higher altitude that they live in. The brevi's are extinct in the wild and only exist on nature preserves today. This is the only "desirable" fur type that anyone would try to catch in the wild today. The costina and lanigera have thinner, weaker fur that is undesirable in the fur trade. Only idiots with no knowledge of the fur trade would try to capture endangered species and there are fur farms in South America...they have no need for capturing wild chinchillas down there.
Click to expand...

According to this the Chinchilla chinchilla and C. lanigera are two separate species.

http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=57
 
Well nobody can say you guys don't do your homework, I was under the misconception that there were only two types as well, and that only one of them was endangered.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top