Exciting wildlife

[SarahKay]

I've been in Peru for 2 weeks and will be here for 4 more and I miss my chinchillas desperately. So Saturday when I went to Machu Picchu and my guide suggested that we might encounter wild chinchillas, I pretty much cried tears of joy. I dedicated my tour of the ancient city to a chinchilla search, hoping to get the perfect photo of a chinchilla in the wild. I found little piles of chinchilla poops and knew I was on the trail. Unfortunately, I did not quite manage to find a chinchilla, but I found a ton of viscachas (certainly an acceptable substitute since they ARE their cousins) and I wanted to share my photos! They're really adorable and in the one photo, the furry creature looks enough like a chinchilla that I decided I could pretend. Also, I thought all of the chinchilla people on here might enjoy the close encounter. :thumbsup:

This one looks a bit angry, but still cute.

Laying!

Head on.

And I thought he looked like a chinchilla here.

 

[AZChins]

Those are very good pictures! I wish that you would have gotten a wild chinnie, but those are great. Thank you for sharing.

 

[SarahKay]

Thanks! I really wanted to find a wild chin, but no luck so far.

 

[bchins]

Aw, so cute. They really do resemble chinchillas Yes! Please if you see a wild chinchilla, please post pics! Problem is that they are nocturnal

 

[SarahKay]

Yeah, I was surprised to find viscachas at 3 PM. I might have had a better chance at 4-5 PM (it gets dark really early here) but alas, I had to leave.

 

[CrissysChins]

Maybe its just me but the last picture looks like a Kangaroo face. Thanks for sharing as I have never seen one.

 

[Brittany]

Wow those are GREAT photos! I do see the resemblance. I hope you're having a GREAT trip!

PS. My rescues are getting adopted this weekend, so if you could bring me one of those back in your suitcase I have the extra room now ;-)

 

[SarahKay]

I'll look into the trapping process, Brittany.

 

[Lulilac]

Great pictures! They look like a chinchilla with a the head of a kangaroo.

 

[addictedtochins]

Mine!! Trapping is easy, just get a container of Blue Cloud, I bet they would love it! Don't forget the apple wood sticks lol. Thanks so much for the pictures, I hope you can share a bunch of pics of your whole trip, or maybe a link to them.

 

[SarahKay]

That's a great idea. I don't know if I can get a hold of dust bath here since most people interestingly have no idea what a chinchilla is here, but I'll have to look around!

 

[RDZCRanch]

On a few of the wild chinchilla websites, it states that there are no longer any wild chinchillas in Peru. They were thought to have all been trapped out. They are much more common in Chile.

 

[momenteller]

That's awesome! Really good pics. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Chub_Chub]

Awesome pics! They really do look like cousins of the chinnies we know and love. You got some really great shots.. Were they afraid of people at all, or were you using a really good zoom on them?

 

[SarahKay]

I had on a pretty good zoom but they didn't seem to care too much about me gawking at them. I was about five feet away from the first one and he was in the middle of the city just hanging out so they're probably used to tourists.

And I did not expect to see any chinchillas here at all, but when he suggested it was a possibility, I really wanted to believe him. I think that machu picchu has a higher concentration of viscachas than anywhere else because it's protected and they are hunted everywhere else.

 

[Amy555]

Wow, those are amazing photos. My, what big feet you have...

 

[SarahKay]

Thanks!

Also, it was mentioned that I should link to the rest of my adventures. Here's the rest of my Machu Picchu album, although it's mostly just photos of me acting like a tourist so it's not that exciting. I already have four albums of just Cusco alone, haha.

 

[Sandi]

Great shots! I too thought of kangaroos when I took a look at there faces/heads. Lucky you for being on such a great trip. )

 

[jfleenor2]

Great pics! Thanks!

 

[SarahKay]

Which is perfect, considering how many people have named their chins Roo!

Great shots! I too thought of kangaroos when I took a look at there faces/heads. Lucky you for being on such a great trip. )