Chinchillas. General information about chinchillas

In northern Chile.

Chinchillas inhabit dry rocky areas at an altitude of 400 to 5000 meters above sea level, preferring northern slopes. Rock crevices and voids under stones are used as shelters; if they are absent, the animals dig a hole. Chinchillas are perfectly adapted to life in the mountains. Chinchillas are monogamous. According to some reports, life expectancy can reach 20 years. Chinchillas lead a colonial lifestyle; They eat various herbaceous plants, mainly cereals, legumes, as well as mosses, lichens, cacti, shrubs, tree bark, and insects from animal food.

Chinchillas live in colonies and are active at night. Their skeletons compress in a vertical plane, allowing the animals to crawl through narrow vertical cracks. A well-developed cerebellum allows the animals to move perfectly on rocks. Large black eyes, long whiskers, large oval ears are not an accident: this is an adaptation to twilight image life.

Exploitation of animals as a source of valuable fur on the European market and North America was started in the 19th century, there is still a great need for skins to this day. One fur coat requires about 100 skins; chinchilla products are recognized as the rarest and most expensive. In 1928, a chinchilla coat cost half a million gold marks. In 1992, a chinchilla fur coat cost 22,000.

The long-tailed chinchilla is kept as a pet and bred for its fur on numerous farms and private rabbitries. The fur of the small or long-tailed chinchilla is grayish-bluish, very soft, thick and durable. The fur of large or short-tailed chinchillas is of somewhat poorer quality.

Now the rodent is protected in its original habitats in South America, however, their range and numbers have been greatly reduced.

Biology

The chinchilla's head is round in shape and its neck is short. The body length is 22-38 cm, the tail is 10-17 cm long and covered with hard guard hairs. The head is large, the eyes are large, the ears are rounded 5-6 cm, the vibrissae are 8-10 cm. The hind limbs are four-toed, twice as long as the front five-toed ones, and allow high jumps. The toes on the front paws are grasping. There are 20 teeth, including 16 molars, which grow throughout life. The ears of chinchillas have special membranes, with the help of which the animals close their ears when they take sand baths; Thanks to this, sand does not get inside. Chinchillas are characterized by sexual dimorphism: females are larger than males and can weigh up to 800 grams; The weight of males usually does not exceed 700 grams. Chinchillas are adapted to nightlife: large black eyes with vertical pupils, long (8-10 cm) vibrissae, large rounded ears (5-6 cm). The chinchilla's skeleton is able to compress in a vertical plane, which allows animals to penetrate narrow crevices in rocks. The forelimbs are five-fingered: four grasping fingers and one little used.

4 premolars - small molars (one on each side of the upper and lower jaw).
12 molars - large molars (three on each side of the upper and lower jaw).

The molars, located at the back of the jaws, together with the premolars, form a group of cheek teeth. Its elements in the chinchilla have a wide, ribbed chewing surface for crushing and grinding food.

Molars are formed by transverse plates without cement (crowns of 2 parallel plates). The cross section of a molar has the shape of a square. The molars are set deeply in the jaw bones. The total length of these teeth is 1.2 cm (root length - 0.9 cm and crown height - 0.3 cm). The upper and lower molars are located opposite each other, touching the entire surface. Between the incisors and premolars there is a wide toothless gap - diastema; there are no fangs. This arrangement of teeth allows rodents to gnaw through relatively hard materials and spit out particles of the latter through the diastema, without even taking them into the mouth. Adult chinchillas have orange teeth, but baby chinchillas are born with white teeth, which change color as they age. Newborn chinchillas have 8 molars and 4 incisors. Incisors grow throughout the life of animals.

Teeth formula

Since different types mammalian teeth are homologous, that is, the same in evolutionary origin (with rare exceptions, for example, in river dolphins teeth more than a hundred), each of them occupies a strictly defined position relative to the others and can be designated serial number. As a result, the dental set characteristic of a species can be easily written down in the form of a formula. Since mammals are bilaterally symmetrical animals, such a formula is compiled only for one side of the upper and lower jaws, remembering that for counting total number teeth, you need to multiply the corresponding numbers by two. Expanded formula (I - incisors, C - canines, P - premolars and M - molars, upper and lower jaws - numerator and denominator of the fraction) for a set of chinchilla teeth, consisting, as mentioned earlier, of four incisors, 4 premolars and 12 molars, formula looks like this:

I	C	P	M
1	0	1	3
1	0	1	3

The sum of the numbers in the formula is 10, multiply by 2, we get 20 - full number teeth.

Type of dental system

Most animals have two changes of teeth - the first, temporary, called milk teeth, and the permanent one, characteristic of adult animals. Their incisors and premolars are completely replaced once in a lifetime, and molars grow without deciduous predecessors. But some mammals (non-edentates, cetaceans) develop only one change of teeth throughout their lives and are called monophyodont. Chinchillas are also classified as monophyodonts.

Reproduction

Chinchillas are mostly monogamous. Chinchillas mate at night. The fact of mating can be determined by indirect evidence: scraps of fur and the presence in the cell of a waxy elongated flagellum 2.5-3 cm long. With a greater degree of certainty, the fact of a female’s pregnancy can be determined by a change in her weight; the female’s gain compared to the previous weighing is 100-110 g every 15 days. Starting from the 60th day of pregnancy, the female’s nipples swell and her abdomen enlarges. Pregnant females are fed high-quality, fortified and varied food.

10 days before birth, the nest box is filled with bedding (hay or straw) and turned over with the hole facing up so that the female does not scatter the bedding. A few days before birth, the bathing suit with sand is removed from the cage. The male (for his safety and the female’s peace of mind) is removed from the cage or separated from the female by a partition. During the prenatal period and during childbirth, the room must be quiet; taking the female is prohibited. As birth approaches, the female moves little and does not touch the food. Most often, the female gives birth in the morning from 5 to 8 o'clock. Childbirth lasts from several minutes to several hours and occurs without outside help. During difficult births, the female is given sugar in the form of syrup 2-3 ml or sand 1.5-2 g 3-4 times a day. The cubs are born covered with down, with erupted teeth and with open eyes and on the first day they are able to move quite freely. One-day-old chinchillas are weighed and their sex is determined (females have anal and genital opening is almost nearby, and in males at a much greater distance). Newborn chinchillas have a live weight of 30-70 g. Older females can give birth to more cubs than younger ones (up to 5-6 instead of 1-2). A day after giving birth, the female can be covered by the male. During the year, a female can cover herself and bring cubs 3 times, but a third covering is not advisable, since the female’s body is greatly depleted. As a rule, the female produces milk on the day of birth, but there are also delays in the appearance of milk (up to 3 days). Therefore, if the cubs are sitting hunched over, with their tail drooping, you need to examine the female. If she does not have milk, the chinchillas are placed with a milk nurse or fed artificially with a special mixture for feeding kittens. During the first week, the cubs are given water every 2.5-3 hours.

A few days after birth, the nest box is installed with the entrance to the side so that the cubs can freely crawl out of it (for feeding). The lactation period lasts 45-60 days, at this age the chinchilla chicks are approximately weaned; they can also be weaned at 30 days of age, especially if the cubs are fed with kitten complementary formula after weaning. Young animals grow quite quickly, month-old cubs are almost three times their one-day weight and weigh 114 g, at 60 days - 201 g, at 90 days - 270 g, at 120 days - 320 g, at 270-440 g and adults - 500 d. As a rule, transplanted young animals are kept in ordinary cages of several heads, females and males separately. Polygamous breeding of chinchillas is also often found, when there are 2 - 4 females per male; with age, the number of females can reach up to 4 - 8.

First mention

In 1553, the animal (apparently mixing with mountain viscachas) was mentioned in literature - in the book “Chronicle of Peru” [ ] Pedro Cieza de Leon . The name chinchillas comes from the name of the Peruvian province Chincha(Peru).

Breeding in captivity

The founder of captive breeding of chinchillas was the American engineer Mathias F. Chapman. In 1919, he began searching for wild chinchillas, which by that time were extremely rare. He and 23 hired hunters were able to catch 11 chinchillas over 3 years, of which only three were females. In 1923, Chapman managed to obtain permission from the Chilean government to export chinchillas. He managed to adapt the chinchillas to the lowland climate and transport them to San Pedro (California). These animals became the founders of a new species of artificially bred fur-bearing animals. At the end of the 20s, the number of chinchillas increased annually by 35%, in the early 30s - by 65%. In the 50s, chinchilla farms existed in most developed countries. Since the beginning of the 90s, there has been a trend not only in keeping chinchillas as pets, but also in breeding.

Life cycle

The chinchilla reaches sexual maturity at 7 months (some later) and is capable of producing 2-3 litters per year, each of which has from 1 to 5 puppies, with an average of 2-3 puppies. The duration of pregnancy is 111 (110-115) days. They live up to 20 years, and successfully reproduce up to 12-15 years. With an increase in offspring from 2-3 to 5 puppies at a time. A chinchilla has three pairs of working nipples, which are enough for raising 3 puppies (1 pair is absorbed). Chinchillas are born with teeth erupted, sighted and covered with primary hair. From 5-7 days they begin to eat food. Young animals are separated from their mother at the age of 50 days, when they have a live weight of 200-250 g. Chinchillas stop growing by 24 months, when they reach a live weight of 450-600 g. The strongest and most fertile rodents, distinguished by high-quality hair, are left for the tribe . When grading (at 6-7 months), the chinchilla is assessed by physique, live weight, constitution, quality of hair and its color.

From 14 weeks of age in puppies (approximately), it is possible to determine the quality of the hair coat and predict it at 6-7 months. When selecting at 6-7 months, young animals with a live weight of at least 400 g, active, healthy, with normal development and thick gray hair with a bluish tint are left for the tribe. After the chinchilla reaches sexual maturity, hunting in females is repeated throughout the year with a certain cyclicity, on average every 30-35 days (with fluctuations from 30 to 50 days) and lasts 2-7 days. Animals exhibit the greatest sexual activity from November to May, with a maximum in January - February. The onset of heat in a female can be determined by her behavior and the condition of the external genitalia. The female becomes more active in hunting, and the male begins to court her, snorting loudly. The female refuses the food and scatters it. The female's external genitalia swells and turns pink, and an open genital slit becomes noticeable.

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Notes

Literature

// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
Burton, J. 1987. The Collins Guide to the Rare Mammals of the World. The Stephen Greene Press, Lexington, MA.
Grzimek, B. 1975. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York.
Jimenez, J. 1995. The Extirpation and Current Status of Wild Chinchillas, Chinchilla lanigera and C. brevicaudata. Biological Conservation 77:1-6.
Nowak, R. 1991. Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th Ed., Vol II. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Kiris I. B. Chinchilla // Tr. VNIIZhP. Kirov. 1962. Issue 19. -WITH. 259-268.
Kiris I. B. Experience of keeping a chinchilla in an enclosure // Sat. works of VNIIOZ. Kirov.1971. Vol. 23. - pp. 49 - 91.
Kiris I.B. Reproduction of chinchilla. // Materials for scientific research. Conf., dedicated to the 50th anniversary of VNIIOZ // Abstracts of reports. Kirov. Environmental issues. 1972. Part 2. - P. 86 - 89.
Kiris I. B. Materials on the embryonic development of the long-tailed chinchilla // Sat. n-t inf. VNIIOZ. Kirov.1973. Vol. 40/41. - pp. 97-102.

An excerpt characterizing Chinchillas

– Which book?
- Gospel! I have no.
The doctor promised to get it and began asking the prince about how he felt. Prince Andrei reluctantly, but wisely answered all the doctor’s questions and then said that he needed to put a cushion on him, otherwise it would be awkward and very painful. The doctor and the valet lifted the greatcoat with which he was covered and, wincing at the heavy smell of rotten meat spreading from the wound, began to examine it scary place. The doctor was very dissatisfied with something, changed something differently, turned the wounded man over so that he groaned again and, from the pain while turning, again lost consciousness and began to rave. He kept talking about getting this book for him as soon as possible and putting it there.
- And what does it cost you! - he said. “I don’t have it, please take it out and put it in for a minute,” he said in a pitiful voice.
The doctor went out into the hallway to wash his hands.
“Ah, shameless, really,” the doctor said to the valet, who was pouring water on his hands. “I just didn’t watch it for a minute.” After all, you put it directly on the wound. It’s such a pain that I’m surprised how he endures it.
“It seems like we planted it, Lord Jesus Christ,” said the valet.
For the first time, Prince Andrei understood where he was and what had happened to him, and remembered that he was wounded and how at that moment when the carriage stopped in Mytishchi, he asked to go to the hut. Confused again from pain, he came to his senses another time in the hut, when he was drinking tea, and then again, repeating in his memory everything that had happened to him, he most vividly imagined that moment at the dressing station when, at the sight of the suffering of a person he did not love, , these new thoughts came to him, promising him happiness. And these thoughts, although unclear and indefinite, now again took possession of his soul. He remembered that he now had new happiness and that this happiness had something in common with the Gospel. That's why he asked for the Gospel. But the bad situation that his wound had given him, the new upheaval, again confused his thoughts, and for the third time he woke up to life in the complete silence of the night. Everyone was sleeping around him. A cricket was screaming through the entryway, someone was shouting and singing on the street, cockroaches were rustling on the table and on the icons, in the autumn a fat fly was beating on his headboard and near a burnt tallow candle. big mushroom and standing next to him.
His soul was not in a normal state. Healthy man usually thinks, feels and remembers simultaneously about a countless number of objects, but has the power and strength, having chosen one series of thoughts or phenomena, to focus all his attention on this series of phenomena. A healthy person, in a moment of deepest thought, breaks away to say a polite word to the person who has entered, and again returns to his thoughts. The soul of Prince Andrei was not in a normal state in this regard. All the forces of his soul were more active, clearer than ever, but they acted outside of his will. The most diverse thoughts and ideas simultaneously possessed him. Sometimes his thought suddenly began to work, and with such strength, clarity and depth with which it had never been able to act in healthy condition; but suddenly, in the middle of her work, she broke off, was replaced by some unexpected idea, and there was no strength to return to it.
“Yes, I have discovered a new happiness, inalienable from a person,” he thought, lying in a dark, quiet hut and looking ahead with feverishly open, fixed eyes. Happiness that is beyond material forces, beyond material external influences per person, the happiness of one soul, the happiness of love! Every person can understand it, but only God can recognize and prescribe it. But how did God prescribe this law? Why son?.. And suddenly the train of these thoughts was interrupted, and Prince Andrei heard (not knowing whether he was in delirium or in reality he was hearing this), he heard some quiet, whispering voice, incessantly repeating in rhythm: “And drink piti drink” then “and ti tii” again “and piti piti piti” again “and ti ti.” At the same time, to the sound of this whispering music, Prince Andrei felt that some strange airy building made of thin needles or splinters was erected above his face, above the very middle. He felt (although it was difficult for him) that he had to diligently maintain his balance so that the building that was being erected would not collapse; but it still fell down and slowly rose up again at the sounds of steadily whispering music. “It’s stretching!” stretches! stretches and everything stretches,” Prince Andrei said to himself. Along with listening to the whisper and feeling this stretching and rising building of needles, Prince Andrei saw in fits and starts the red light of a candle surrounded in a circle and heard the rustling of cockroaches and the rustling of a fly beating on the pillow and on his face. And every time the fly touched his face, it produced a burning sensation; but at the same time he was surprised by the fact that, hitting the very area of the building erected on his face, the fly did not destroy it. But besides this, there was one more important thing. It was white by the door, it was a sphinx statue that was also crushing him.
“But maybe this is my shirt on the table,” thought Prince Andrei, “and these are my legs, and this is the door; but why is everything stretching and moving forward and piti piti piti and tit ti - and piti piti piti... - Enough, stop, please, leave it, - Prince Andrei begged someone heavily. And suddenly the thought and feeling emerged again with extraordinary clarity and strength.
“Yes, love,” he thought again with perfect clarity), but not the love that loves for something, for something or for some reason, but the love that I experienced for the first time, when, dying, I saw my enemy and still fell in love with him. I experienced that feeling of love, which is the very essence of the soul and for which no object is needed. I still experience this blissful feeling. Love your neighbors, love your enemies. To love everything - to love God in all manifestations. You can love a dear person with human love; but only an enemy can be loved with divine love. And from this I experienced such joy when I felt that I loved that person. What's wrong with him? Is he alive... Loving with human love, you can move from love to hatred; but divine love cannot change. Nothing, not death, nothing can destroy it. She is the essence of the soul. And how many people have I hated in my life. And of all the people, I have never loved or hated anyone more than her.” And he vividly imagined Natasha, not the way he had imagined her before, with only her charm, joyful for himself; but for the first time I imagined her soul. And he understood her feeling, her suffering, shame, repentance. Now for the first time he understood the cruelty of his refusal, saw the cruelty of his break with her. “If only it were possible for me to see her just one more time. Once, looking into these eyes, say..."
And piti piti piti and ti ti ti, and piti piti - boom, a fly hit... And his attention was suddenly transferred to another world of reality and delirium, in which something special was happening. Still in this world, everything was erected without collapsing, a building, something was still stretching, the same candle was burning with a red circle, the same sphinx shirt was lying at the door; but, besides all this, something creaked, there was a smell of fresh wind, and a new white sphinx, standing, appeared in front of the door. And in the head of this sphinx there was the pale face and sparkling eyes of the very Natasha about whom he was now thinking.
“Oh, how heavy is this incessant nonsense!” - thought Prince Andrei, trying to banish this face from his imagination. But this face stood before him with the force of reality, and this face came closer. Prince Andrei wanted to return to the former world of pure thought, but he could not, and delirium drew him into its realm. The quiet whispering voice continued its measured babble, something was pressing, stretching, and a strange face stood in front of him. Prince Andrey gathered all his strength to come to his senses; he moved, and suddenly his ears began to ring, his eyes grew dim, and he, like a man plunged into water, lost consciousness. When he woke up, Natasha, the same living Natasha, whom of all the people in the world he most wanted to love with that new, pure divine love that was now open to him, was kneeling before him. He realized that it was a living, real Natasha, and was not surprised, but was quietly happy. Natasha, on her knees, scared but chained (she could not move), looked at him, holding back her sobs. Her face was pale and motionless. Only in the lower part of it was something trembling.
Prince Andrei sighed with relief, smiled and extended his hand.
- You? - he said. - How happy!
Natasha, with a quick but careful movement, moved towards him on her knees and, carefully taking his hand, bent over her face and began to kiss her, barely touching her lips.
- Sorry! - she said in a whisper, raising her head and looking at him. - Forgive me!
“I love you,” said Prince Andrei.
- Sorry…
- Forgive what? - asked Prince Andrei.
“Forgive me for what I did,” Natasha said in a barely audible, broken whisper and began to kiss her hand more often, barely touching her lips.
“I love you more, better than before,” said Prince Andrei, raising her face with his hand so that he could look into her eyes.
These eyes, filled with happy tears, timidly, compassionately and joyfully lovingly looked at him. Natasha’s thin and pale face with swollen lips was more than ugly, it was scary. But Prince Andrei did not see this face, he saw shining eyes that were beautiful. A conversation was heard behind them.
Peter the valet, now completely awake from his sleep, woke the doctor. Timokhin, who had not slept all the time from pain in his leg, had long seen everything that was being done, and, diligently covering his undressed body with a sheet, shrank on the bench.
- What is this? - said the doctor, rising from his bed. - Please go, madam.
At the same time, a girl sent by the Countess, who missed her daughter, knocked on the door.
Like a somnambulist who was awakened in the middle of her sleep, Natasha left the room and, returning to her hut, fell sobbing on her bed.

From that day, during the entire further journey of the Rostovs, at all rests and overnight stays, Natasha did not leave the wounded Bolkonsky, and the doctor had to admit that he did not expect from the girl either such firmness or such skill in caring for the wounded.
No matter how terrible the thought seemed to the countess that Prince Andrei could (very likely, according to the doctor) die during the journey in the arms of her daughter, she could not resist Natasha. Although, as a result of the now established rapprochement between the wounded Prince Andrei and Natasha, it occurred to him that in the event of recovery, the previous relationship of the bride and groom would be resumed, no one, least of all Natasha and Prince Andrei, spoke about this: the unresolved, hanging question of life or death is not only over Bolkonsky, but over Russia, overshadowed all other assumptions.

Pierre woke up late on September 3rd. His head ached, the dress in which he slept without undressing weighed down his body, and in his soul there was a vague consciousness of something shameful that had been committed the day before; This was a shameful conversation yesterday with Captain Rambal.
The clock showed eleven, but it seemed especially cloudy outside. Pierre stood up, rubbed his eyes and, seeing the pistol with a cut-out stock, which Gerasim had put back on the desk, Pierre remembered where he was and what lay ahead of him that very day.
“Am I too late? - thought Pierre. “No, he will probably make his entry into Moscow no earlier than twelve.” Pierre did not allow himself to think about what lay ahead of him, but was in a hurry to act as quickly as possible.
Having straightened his dress, Pierre took the pistol in his hands and was about to leave. But then for the first time the thought came to him about how, not in his hand, he could carry this weapon down the street. Even under a wide caftan it was difficult to hide a large pistol. It could not be placed inconspicuously either behind a belt or under an armpit. In addition, the pistol was unloaded, and Pierre did not have time to load it. “It’s all the same, it’s a dagger,” Pierre said to himself, although more than once, while discussing the fulfillment of his intention, he decided with himself that main mistake student in 1809 was that he wanted to kill Napoleon with a dagger. But it's as if main goal Pierre's goal was not to carry out his intended task, but to show himself that he did not renounce his intention and was doing everything to fulfill it. Pierre hastily took the blunt jagged dagger in a green sheath that he had bought from the Sukharev Tower along with the pistol. and hid it under his vest.
Having belted his caftan and pulled down his hat, Pierre, trying not to make noise and not to meet the captain, walked along the corridor and went out into the street.
The fire that he had looked at so indifferently the night before had grown significantly overnight. Moscow has already been burning since different sides. Karetny Ryad, Zamoskvorechye, Gostiny Dvor, Povarskaya, barges on the Moscow River and the wood market near the Dorogomilovsky Bridge were burning at the same time.
Pierre's path lay through the alleys to Povarskaya and from there to the Arbat, to St. Nicholas the Apparition, with whom he had long ago determined in his imagination the place where his deed should be carried out. Most of the houses had locked gates and shutters. The streets and alleys were deserted. The air smelled of burning and smoke. Occasionally we encountered Russians with anxiously timid faces and Frenchmen with a non-urban, camp look, walking along the middle of the streets. Both of them looked at Pierre in surprise. In addition to his great height and thickness, in addition to the strange, gloomily concentrated and suffering expression on his face and entire figure, the Russians looked closely at Pierre because they did not understand what class this man could belong to. The French followed him with their eyes in surprise, especially because Pierre, disgusted by all the other Russians who looked at the French in fear or curiosity, did not pay any attention to them. At the gate of one house, three Frenchmen, who were explaining something to Russian people who did not understand them, stopped Pierre, asking if he knew French?
Pierre shook his head negatively and moved on. In another alley, a sentry standing by a green box shouted at him, and only at the repeated menacing scream and the sound of a gun taken by the sentry on his hand did Pierre realize that he had to go around to the other side of the street. He heard and saw nothing around him. He, like something terrible and alien to him, carried his intention with haste and horror, afraid - taught by the experience of the previous night - to somehow lose it. But Pierre was not destined to convey his mood intact to the place where he was heading. In addition, even if he had not been delayed by anything on the way, his intention could not have been fulfilled simply because Napoleon had traveled more than four hours ago from the Dorogomilovsky suburb through the Arbat to the Kremlin and was now sitting in the gloomiest mood in the Tsar’s office the Kremlin Palace and gave detailed, detailed orders about the measures that immediately had to be taken to extinguish the fire, prevent looting and calm the residents. But Pierre did not know this; He, completely absorbed in what was to come, suffered, as people suffer who stubbornly undertake an impossible task - not because of the difficulties, but because the task is unusual for their nature; he was tormented by the fear that he would weaken at the decisive moment and, as a result, lose self-respect.
Although he did not see or hear anything around him, he instinctively knew the way and did not make the mistake of taking the side streets that led him to Povarskaya.
As Pierre approached Povarskaya, the smoke became stronger and stronger, and there was even heat from the fire. Occasionally tongues of fire rose from behind the roofs of houses. More people met on the streets, and these people were more anxious. But Pierre, although he felt that something extraordinary was happening around him, was not aware that he was approaching a fire. Walking along a path that ran along a large undeveloped place, adjacent on one side to Povarskaya, on the other to the gardens of Prince Gruzinsky’s house, Pierre suddenly heard the desperate cry of a woman next to him. He stopped, as if awakening from sleep, and raised his head.
To the side of the path, on the dry, dusty grass, household belongings were piled up: feather beds, a samovar, icons and chests. A middle-aged woman was sitting on the ground next to the chests. thin woman, with long protruding upper teeth, dressed in a black coat and cap. This woman, rocking and saying something, cried sorely. Two girls, from ten to twelve years old, dressed in dirty short dresses and cloaks, looked at their mother with an expression of bewilderment on their pale, frightened faces. A smaller boy, about seven years old, wearing a suit and someone else’s huge cap, was crying in the arms of an old woman nanny. A barefoot, dirty girl sat on a chest and, having loosened her whitish braid, pulled back her singed hair, sniffing it. The husband, a short, stooped man in a uniform, with wheel-shaped sideburns and smooth temples visible from under a straight-on cap, with a motionless face, moved apart the chests, placed one on top of the other, and pulled out some clothes from under them.
The woman almost threw herself at Pierre's feet when she saw him.
“Dear fathers, Orthodox Christians, save, help, my dear!.. someone help,” she said through sobs. - A girl!.. A daughter!.. They left my youngest daughter!.. She burned down! Oh oh oh! That's why I cherish you... Oh oh oh!

Chinchillas' natural habitat is the harsh, desert highlands of the Andes. So that the animals can retain warmth and energy, nature gave them fluffy coats, on one square centimeter of which 25,000 hairs fit. Since ancient times, the valuable fur of rodents has been a luxury item, available to leaders, kings and kings. Because of him, chinchillas paid with their population; there are very few of them left in nature, so the animals are listed in the Red Book. What saved chinchillas from complete extinction was that from 1919 to 1921, the American enthusiast Mathias F. Chapman caught eleven individuals. He laid the foundation for the breeding of rodents in captivity. The animals, thanks to their friendliness and ease of keeping, quickly found a place in the hearts of animal lovers.

Source: www.mir-shinsh.narod.ru

Reasons for chinchilla

1. If you are a busy person and cannot devote much time to your animal, then a chinchilla is what you need. This is an independent animal that can easily live without the increased attention of its owner.

2. If you are leaving, there is no need to look for somewhere to “place” the animal, frantically calling friends and relatives. A chinchilla can wait for your return home for a week without any problems. Of course, if you have enough water and food.

3. If you work the day shift and only come home in the evening, then your rhythm of life coincides with the rhythm of life of a chinchilla. After all, she is a nocturnal animal and sleeps during the day; her activity peaks in the evening.

Source: blogs.privet.ru

4. Try not to remove the hamster cage in time or guinea pig, and they will immediately remind you of this with a specific “aroma”. The chinchilla does not emit any odor because the animal does not have sweat or sebaceous glands. The only thing it smells like is sawdust.

5. Chinchilla is a ball of fluffy tenderness. Their fur is extremely pleasant to the touch. Once you touch it, you will want to touch it again and again. Having stroked an animal once, you will never confuse this feeling with anything else.

7. Chinchillas are hypoallergenic, that is, their fur does not cause allergies.

8. The chinchilla does not shed, only individual hairs or tufts fall out under severe stress or due to a fight.

9. With a chinchilla, you'll never know how to trim nails, clean ears, or bathe. pet. The animal and water are incompatible; it bathes in the sand, but copes well with other aspects of personal hygiene on its own.

10. Chinchilla is one of the few rodents whose pregnancy period and the period when the baby must stay with the mother is one of the longest. The pregnancy lasts four months and for at least four months the baby is not one step behind the mother, and in wildlife he follows her until he becomes sexually mature (up to eight months). Because of this, the animals have a strong immune system, they do not have congenital or hereditary diseases, and they also do not need to be vaccinated. The cause can be solely due to improper care.

11. Chinchillas are not fertile, this is one of the reasons that animals and their skins are quite expensive. If you get a pair, you won’t have to search every two months for a forest of “kind hands” ready to take the cubs. On average, one or two babies are born at a time. At least eight months pass from one pregnancy to the second.

Source: www.chinclub.ru

12. In the wild, a chinchilla has almost no enemies, so it has no special devices for protection (sharp teeth, claws, poison, thorns), except for dexterous (fast and “jumping”) paws, so a chinchilla will never scratch. And the risk of being bitten is very small (you can bite only in case of extreme discomfort or out of curiosity, but it does not hurt at all). Chinchillas are not aggressive, they are peaceful and friendly animals.

Source: videodisc.tv

13. Chinchillas are very curious, and therefore sociable. You can play with the animals, they are interesting to watch, and their swimming in the sand is a performance from which you cannot take your eyes off.

14. Chinchilla is an economical animal to keep. Cage, food and sawdust - this is the list of costs for it. Special granules or food and hay will fully satisfy your pet’s gastronomic needs. One chinchilla eats from one to two tablespoons of food per day.

Source: www.artfile.ru

15. The chinchilla is an ergonomic animal and is perfect for those who have cramped living conditions and really want to have a pet “fluffy”. The cage will not take up much space and it is better if it is tall rather than wide. After all, chinchillas are famous lovers of jumping. If the cage is spacious enough, then you don’t have to let the animal go for walks around the apartment, and you won’t have to sweep away “traces” of its movements everywhere, and you will only clean up after it in the cage. Cleaning a chinchilla's cage is very easy.

On at the moment chinchillas are listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources. Long-tailed chinchillas are farmed for their fur in many countries and are also common as pets.
In 1553, the animal (apparently mixing with mountain viscachas) was mentioned in literature - in the book “Chronicle of Peru” by Pedro Cieza de Leon. The name for chinchillas was the province of Chincha (Peru).
Natural habitat

The homeland of chinchillas is South America. Short-tailed chinchillas live in the Andes of southern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. The long-tailed chinchilla is currently found only in a limited area of the Andes in northern Chile.
Chinchillas inhabit dry rocky areas at an altitude of 400 to 5000 meters above sea level, preferring northern slopes. Rock crevices and voids under stones are used as shelters; if they are absent, the animals dig a hole. Chinchillas are perfectly adapted to life in the mountains. Chinchillas are monogamous. According to some reports, life expectancy can reach 20 years. Chinchillas lead a colonial lifestyle; They eat various herbaceous plants, mainly cereals, legumes, as well as mosses, lichens, cacti, shrubs, tree bark, and insects from animal food.
Chinchillas live in colonies and are active at night. Exploitation of animals as a source valuable fur The market in Europe and North America began in the 19th century, and there is still a great demand for skins to this day. One fur coat requires about 100 skins; chinchilla products are recognized as the rarest and most expensive. In 1928, a chinchilla coat cost half a million gold marks. In 1992, a chinchilla fur coat cost $22,000.
The long-tailed chinchilla is kept as a pet and bred for its fur on numerous farms. The fur of the small or long-tailed chinchilla is grayish-bluish, very soft, thick and durable. The fur of large or short-tailed chinchillas is of somewhat poorer quality.
Now the rodent is protected in its original habitats in South America, but their range and numbers have been greatly reduced.

Biology

The biology of chinchillas in natural habitats has been little studied; basic data on behavior, reproduction, and physiology are obtained in artificial conditions. Most of the data relates to long-tailed chinchillas due to their mass breeding in captivity.
The chinchilla's head is round in shape and its neck is short. The body length is 22 - 38 cm, the tail is 10 - 17 cm long and covered with hard guard hairs. Chinchillas are characterized by sexual dimorphism: Females are larger than males and can weigh up to 800 grams; The weight of males usually does not exceed 700 grams. Chinchillas are adapted to night life: large black eyes with vertical pupils, long (8 - 10 cm) whiskers, large rounded ears (5-6 cm). The chinchilla's skeleton is able to compress in a vertical plane, which allows animals to penetrate narrow crevices in rocks. The forelimbs are five-fingered: four grasping fingers and one little-used one are twice as long as the front five-fingered ones. The hind limbs are four-toed. Strong hind limbs are twice as long as the front ones and allow high jumps, and a well-developed cerebellum provides good coordination of movements necessary for safe movement on rocks. Chinchilla Brevicaudata is distinguished by its larger size, wide head, small bluish ears and short tail. The ears of chinchillas have special membranes, with the help of which the animals close their ears when they take sand baths; Thanks to this, sand does not get inside.
Chinchillas are herbivores. The basis of their diet consists of various herbaceous plants, mainly cereals, legumes, also seeds, mosses, lichens, shrubs, tree bark, small insects. Chinchillas make very interesting sounds: when they don't like something, they make a sound similar to quacks or chirps. If you make them very angry, they begin to make sounds similar to growling or blowing their nose, and sometimes click their teeth very quickly. If they get hit hard or get very scared, they can squeak very loudly. But chinchillas are not defenseless - if threatened, they can attack. They attack in a rather funny way: they stand high on their hind legs, begin to “growl”, let out a stream of urine, and then grab them with their teeth.

FUR

Chinchillas have a relatively small and narrow oral cavity, but with well-developed gums. Adult animals have 20 teeth in both jaws (upper and lower), including 4 incisors and 16 molars. The molars are set deeply in the jaw bones. The cross section of such a tooth has the shape of a square. On the grinding surface of the molars there are two transverse lamellar convexities that ensure grinding of food. The total length of these teeth is 1.2 cm. The length of the root is 0.9 cm, and the height of the crown rising above the gum is 0.3 cm. The upper and lower molars are located opposite each other, touching the entire surface. The incisors are somewhat curved. Their crowns overlap each other - the upper one on the lower one. The length of the crowns of these teeth is from 0.6 to 1.2 cm. Newborn chinchillas have 8 molars and 4 incisors. Incisors grow throughout the life of animals.
The food, previously crushed by teeth, then falls into a relatively long digestive tract, which is almost 12 times longer than body chinchillas. A simple single-chamber stomach is located in the left side of the abdominal cavity in the hypochondrium, has a length of 3.5 cm and a width of about 2 cm. The volume of the stomach can increase many times during the process of filling it. The small intestine is about 37 cm long. It contains the duodenum and the small intestine, entering the sac-like cecum of considerable size.
Compared to the cecum of other mammals, in the chinchilla it is more adapted to digesting poor plant foods; it has numerous protuberances. The length of the cecum is on average 37.5 cm (27.8 - 42.7), width 2.4 cm (1.7 - 2.8), volume about 70 cubic cm (45-91). In the cecum, food is retained for 4-5 days and is subjected to further processes digestion. Basically, the breakdown of coarse fiber occurs here with the participation of numerous bacterial microflora, which, during digestion, is an additional source of protein.
Absorption of water and non-protein nitrogen occurs in the large intestine. Here, too, thanks to the developed microflora, food is digested, as well as liquid is separated. The chinchilla's large intestine is very long, 2.5 times longer than the small intestine. His internal structure provides excellent water absorption, which is a functional adaptation of the body to the lack of water in the natural environment. The large intestine continues into the rectum, which ends at the anus. Undigested food residues, devoid of water, are removed through the anus in lumps in the shape of rice grains about 0.6 cm long.
Chinchillas produce two types of feces: nighttime and daytime. About 50% of the nighttime, soft feces, rich in complete microbial protein, vitamins B and K, are eaten by the chinchilla again, but it does not touch the daytime (hard) feces. The phenomenon of coprophagy (eating feces) in chinchillas is a natural and important physiological process. Night feces are similar in composition to the contents of the cecum, and, thanks to coprophagy, chinchillas “charge” the digestive tract with beneficial microflora. Thanks to coprophagy, food masses pass through the digestive tract twice and are better absorbed; the animal receives complete microbial protein and vitamins B and K, which are synthesized in the cecum.

Adult females are capable of producing 2-3 litters per year. Puberty in puppies it can occur early: in females at 2-3 months, in males at 4-5 months, but generally young animals mature by 6-7 months. Females can come into heat from November to May, and its peak is in January - February. Pregnancy lasts 110..115 days. After whelping, the female can become covered again within 18 hours, that is, females combine pregnancy with lactation, some individuals are capable of this even after the second birth. But a third litter within a year is quite rare. The reproductive period lasts on average 8 years or more with a life expectancy of 15... 16 years. Reproductive ability largely depends on the conditions of detention. The female brings 1...5 cubs, most often - 2-3, but some had females who raised 5 puppies. Puppies are born covered with hair, sighted, weighing 35-65 g, and within a week they begin to eat other foods in addition to their mother's milk. Up to 8 months, the height of males and females is the same, then the latter surpass the former in terms of live weight.
The chinchilla's body is covered with thick, smooth, silky fur 2.5-3.0 cm high, with weakly expressed covering hair, forming a beautiful dark veil. The color of the hair on the back and sides of a standard chinchilla is from light gray to dark gray with a blue tint; on the abdomen it is white or bluish-white.
The down hair is slightly wavy, very thin, 12-16 microns, the coverts are twice as thick and only 4-8 mm longer than the underfur. On one square centimeter of skin surface there are more than 25 thousand hairs, significantly more than in other fur-bearing animals.
The hair has a zonal color: the lower zone is dark gray, sometimes almost black or bluish, the middle zone is white, the upper zone is black, which gives fur beautiful game tones on the curves of the body. The female and male do not differ in fur color. Currently, there is a wide variety of animals with different fur colors.

In nature, the long-tailed chinchilla lives in cold, dry desert conditions, where relative humidity air rarely exceeds 30%. and where there are exceptionally sharp fluctuations in air temperature. Chinchilla is very sensitive to high humidity air, especially in combination with sudden changes in temperature.
On steep mountain slopes and rocky deserts, animals use natural caves and crevices as homes, where they escape the heat and cold.
Hair shedding in animals of different ages does not occur simultaneously. Puppies change their hair coat 2 times until 7-9 months of age, when the formation of the hair coat ends and it matures for the first time. Adult chinchillas shed gradually throughout the year, and mass, simultaneous shedding is not observed among the entire herd.
There are no seasonal differences in hair color, only hair density changes. Full maturity of the hairline in adult chinchillas occurs mainly from November to March and in some individuals lasts from several days to a month, and sometimes more.

Chinchillas are very mobile and quickly respond to external stimuli, as they have well-developed hearing and sense of smell. Chinchillas are active all year round. During the day, it is most active in the first half of the night and before dawn. The peculiarity of these rodents is that they cannot tidy up their fur by combing. Therefore, to maintain their hair in a lush condition, they regularly “bathe” in dust. Chinchilla is adapted to natural conditions to feeding on dry plant foods. Its main food is stems, leaves, seeds, roots and bulbs of cereals and other drought-resistant herbaceous plants, fruits, leaves and bark of evergreen shrubs, as well as cacti. All these, as well as alpine plants in general, have exceptionally high calorie content and nutritional value. Their need for water is satisfied by the moisture of the plants they eat.
Chinchillas are mostly monogamous. Chinchillas mate at night. The fact of mating can be determined by indirect evidence: scraps of fur and the presence in the cell of a waxy elongated flagellum 2.5-3 cm long. With a greater degree of certainty, the fact of a female’s pregnancy can be determined by a change in her weight; the female’s gain compared to the previous weighing is 100-110 g every 15 days. Starting from the 60th day of pregnancy, the female’s nipples swell and her abdomen enlarges. Pregnant females are fed high-quality, fortified and varied food. 10 days before whelping, the nest box is filled with bedding (hay or straw) and turned over with the hole facing up so that the female does not scatter the bedding. A few days before whelping, the sand bath is removed from the cage. The male (for his safety and the female’s peace of mind) is removed from the cage or separated from the female by a partition. During the prenatal period and during childbirth, the room must be quiet; taking the female is prohibited. As birth approaches, the female moves little and does not touch the food. Most often, the female gives birth in the morning from 5 to 8 o'clock. Childbirth lasts from several minutes to several hours and occurs without outside help. During difficult births, the female is given sugar in the form of syrup 2-3 ml or sand 1.5-2 g 3-4 times a day. The cubs are born covered with down, with teeth erupted and eyes open, and on the first day they are able to move quite freely. One-day-old chinchillas are weighed and their sex is determined (in females the anal and genital openings are almost nearby, and in males they are at a much greater distance). Newborn chinchillas have a live weight of 30-70 g. Older females can give birth to more cubs than younger ones (up to 5-6 instead of 1-2). A day after giving birth, the female can be covered by the male. During the year, a female can cover herself and bring cubs 3 times, but a third covering is not advisable, since the female’s body is greatly depleted. As a rule, the female produces milk on the day of birth, but there are also delays in the appearance of milk (up to 3 days). Therefore, if the cubs are sitting hunched over, with their tail drooping, you need to examine the female. If she does not have milk, the chinchillas are placed with a milk nurse or fed artificially: condensed milk (without sugar) diluted (1:2) in water or cow’s or goat’s milk. During the first week, the cubs are given water every 2.5-3 hours. A few days after birth, the nest box is installed with the entrance to the side so that the cubs can freely crawl out of it (for feeding). The lactation period lasts 45-60 days, at this age chinchilla chicks are approximately weaned; they can be weaned at 30 days of age, especially if the cubs are fed with boiled milk after weaning. Young animals grow quite quickly, month-old cubs are almost three times their one-day weight and weigh 114 g, at 60 days - 201 g, at 90 days - 270 g, at 120 days - 320 g, at 270-440 g and adults - 500 d. As a rule, transplanted young animals are kept in ordinary cages of several heads, females and males separately. Polygamous breeding of chinchillas is also often found, when there are 2 - 4 females per male; with age, the number of females can reach up to 4 - 8.

A description of a chinchilla will help you write an essay and learn a lot of interesting things about these animals.

Description of chinchilla

The chinchilla is a rodent of the chinchilla family. The body of chinchillas is covered with soft, thick hair of gray, ash or white. In the 20th century, more than 40 different species of chinchillas were bred, with over 250 shades of coat color.
Chinchillas have a round head and a short neck. Coarse hairs grow on the tail. The body length is 22-38 cm, and the tail grows 10-17 cm long. The weight of a chinchilla reaches 700-800 grams, while females are larger and heavier than males.

At night, chinchillas can easily navigate thanks to their huge eyes, which have vertical pupils. The whiskers of mammals grow up to 10 centimeters in length. Chinchilla ears are round in shape and have a length of 5-6 cm. In the ears there is a special membrane with which the chinchilla closes its ears when taking a sand bath.

The chinchilla's skeleton can be compressed in a vertical plane, so the animals can crawl into the smallest crevices. The chinchilla has short but rather strong legs with small, tenacious claws. Claws help free-living chinchillas navigate the rocks in the crevices of which they live. Chinchillas have very strong teeth, like all rodents.

How long does a chinchilla live? The life expectancy of a chinchilla reaches 20 years.

Where does a chinchilla live? Its natural habitat is the desert highlands of the Andes in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

What does a chinchilla eat?

Like all rodents, the chinchilla eats seeds, cereals, herbaceous plants, lichens, bark, moss, legumes, cacti, shrubs, and insects.
Domestic chinchillas are fed dried foods: apples, carrots, nettles, hay, dried dandelions, nuts, dried fruits, as well as special foods. You should not feed your chinchilla many fresh vegetables and fruits, as this can lead to stomach problems.

Chinchilla breeding

Chinchilla couples are monogamous. At the age of 7 months, the animals reach sexual maturity. The female can give birth to offspring up to three times a year. On average, two cubs are born, but sometimes more. The duration of pregnancy is about 115 days. The male helps the female care for the chinchillas. Small chinchillas are born with open eyes, with fur, and can move around on their own.

Chinchillas were hunted for their beautiful fur and their population declined. At the moment, there are chinchilla farms where animals are raised for their fur. The chinchilla has also become a popular pet.

Chinchillas see poorly, but they are well oriented thanks to their sense of smell;

The chinchilla does not have sweat glands, so it does not smell of anything;

An adult chinchilla has orange teeth. Cubs are born with white teeth, which change color as they age.

Chinchillas do not bathe in water, but in sand or dust: they do not stay on water and immediately get wet;

Chinchillas can jump up to 2 meters and even higher, and they can also sleep upside down, in a vertical and horizontal position;

Chinchillas do not shed, but may shed their fur, especially when attacked.

Chinchilla- a herbivorous fur-bearing animal characterized by its small size. The main advantage of the animal is its fluffy fur, the softness of which is “felt” even on chinchilla photo. The animal is characterized by small eyes, not big ears rounded in shape, long mustache and bushy tail.

Rodents are known for their inquisitive nature and charming disposition. Outwardly they are similar to decorative ones, however, they are considered the closest relative of the chinchilla.

In the wild, chinchillas live in the South - in the Andes region. The structure of the rodent's body, as well as the characteristics of the brain, give it the ability to get through even the narrowest holes and easily climb rocky terrain.

The length of the chinchilla's body reaches no more than 38cm, and the tail - 15cm. At the same time, female individuals are distinguished by their large dimensions.

The typical color of a chinchilla is gray. It is also possessed by wild rodents living in mountainous areas. There are also animals with black, white, beige and other types of colors.

Chinchilla fur has a unique structure: large number hairs grow from a single hair follicle. In this case, the bulbs are located very closely to each other, due to which the fur is extremely thick. The color of the fur is heterogeneous, thanks to which it shimmers in numerous shades.

Chinchillas are considered exotic animals, but over the years they have gained great popularity as pets. These are incredibly good-natured and affectionate animals that get along well with people.

Moreover, chinchilla care- not burdensome, and taming occurs very quickly, the main thing is to treat them kindly.

The animal's fur influenced the appearance of many other animals with exquisite fur. Yes, they appeared british chinchilla And chinchilla rabbit. These creatures are distinguished by their fur, which is very similar to the fur of a rodent, which is why they deserve this name. Chinchilla cat is very popular due to its unique appearance.

Chinchilla price

Buy a chinchilla possible from any breeder, having previously studied the maximum number of options offered. Often they try to sell other small rodents and even rabbits as chinchillas, due to their great similarity.

Chinchilla price fluctuates within different limits, not exceeding 5-6 thousand rubles. When purchasing there are not enough photos or chinchilla video– you need to see the animal live, observe its behavior.

Chinchilla at home

Pet chinchillas They are wonderful pets and favorites of the whole family, and do not require special skills and knowledge from their owners. Before buying an animal, you need to create comfortable conditions for it.

The room in which the chinchilla will live must be dry and warm, ventilated, with sufficient light.

Chinchilla cage needed size 70x50 cm, and also 50 cm in length. Such parameters are considered optimal for keeping one individual. The cage is usually made of metal and takes up little space.

There should be no paint on it. It is recommended that the cage have a special retractable tray for bedding. Considering that the chinchilla is a clean creature, there is no need to change the bedding frequently; it is enough to do it weekly.

Chinchilla at home should be provided with quality food and entertainment. The cages are equipped with a feeding trough, a drinking bowl, as well as a variety of stairs and shelves, which rodents enjoy using during active and passive rest.

The chinchilla should have a hard stone or stick in his cage to grind down his teeth.

There must be small branches on which the rodent can sharpen its teeth. It is important to ensure a proper daily routine because domestic chinchilla- the creation that leads night look life.

The chinchilla is a herbivore, and its diet must be appropriate. The animal needs regular consumption of herbaceous plants, seeds, bark, and small ones. Chinchillas also enjoy eating fresh and dried fruits, hay, and occasionally root vegetables.

Rodents are also partial to special foods. Water should be in the drinking bowl at all times, and it must be boiled, or preferably mineral water without gas, since ordinary tap water will harm the chinchilla’s body.

Pictured is a baby chinchilla

Chinchilla fur

Chinchilla fur– popular in the manufacture of various products. Particularly in demand chinchilla fur coats, due to the positive properties of the material. Such products have effective appearance Moreover, fur is thermally insulating and lightweight.

Chinchilla fur coat price is quite high, since the animal is positioned as exotic, and the fur is elite. Fur is considered a “budget” option chinchilla rex, which is produced by breeding rabbits and, accordingly, costs much less.