A Report on Chinchillas

I seriously love Riley's style of writing.  Sometimes I have a hard time throwing his reports and assignments away cause they are just too darn cute.  I just love this one so I'm going to share.  I highlighted my favorites parts in blue.

A Research Report on Chinchillas

by Riley

If I said to you, "Hey, want a chinchilla, they're pretty cute," you'd probably have no idea what a chichilla is.  But look below....

 (At this point there was actually a picture of a real chinchilla, but I think the one Riley drew for the cover is way cuter!)

Just look at it!  It's a pretty cool animal actually.  Though you'd have to look pretty hard to find one in the wild, these common house pets can still be found in the Andes Mountains in Chile.  The Andes are in the tundra, a biome where it is very cold.

You may be wondering where these animals came from.  They are thought to be originated from an animal caled a Megamy, which were thought to have lived in the Andes, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru.  They must have gone extinct in Argentina (being wild) or they must have moved to other parts of the Andes, such as Chile.  Eventually the Megamy evolved into this creature called a Chinchilla.  They lived in Bolivia, Peru and Chile.  But then, some baddies called "European Explorers" arrived in South America.  Fascinated with the fur they saw, they brought back pelts to Europe and gave them to very important people.   A quick fact about Chinchilla fur - on us humans, where one hair would be, they would have 50!  The fur became very popular very quickly.

In the 1800's, more than one million Chinchillas were trapped!  The hunting nearly led these animals to  extinction, so in the 1900's, laws were passed to stop this treachery.

Then in the 1920's, Mathias F. Chapman trapped a couple of chinchillas in Chile.  Three were female, and eight were male.  He brought them to the States and began breeding them there.  Some he raised for fur, others he sold as pets.  If you have a chinchilla, it most likely descended from a "Chapman Chinchilla."  Without Mr. Chapman, we may never have had Chinchillas here in America.

It is now time for me to show you the life cycle of a chinchilla.  Let me begin.....

These are chinchilla "Kits."  When born, they already have hair.  They open their eyes a bit after they are born.  Think of these like mini adult chinchillas.  They weigh about 35 grams when born.  After about a week, they can eat solid food.

When Chinchillas turn six to eight weeks old, they stop drinking their mother's milk.  Freaky enough....they can have babies.  (Shudders)  (Well, the girl ones can anyway)  But because of their age, they make bad parents, so keep the guy chinchilla and lady chinchilla away at this age!

At 8 months, the chinchillas have graduated from high school.  Well, not really, but they are now adults.  They are finally ready to have babies.  For about 111 days, the mom chinchilla will carry her kids around.  Each litter has about 2 or 3 babies.  Though they are now adults, they weigh a small pound!

The last stage of a chinchilla life is sad.  It's called the "Mature Chinchilla" stage.  At this point, Chinchillas are gray haired animals who don't want to play and just want to sleep.  Too bad!!  At this stage, chinchillas may get ill, so if they do....you now know why.

In the wild where chinchillas live, water is scarce.  So these little rodents must rely on the morning dew for water.  They feed on cacti if they need to, as cacti have water stored in them.

Remember earlier when I mentioned the cold in the Andes?  Well, remember when I said they have fifty hairs where one human hair would be?  Well, that's where they adapt.  The extra hair keeps them warm in the terrible cold.

If a chinchilla got in a fight with a hawk, it's pretty obvious who would win.  So Chinchillas travel in packs.  They usually consist of up to 100 chinchillas.  That way the hawk would have less of a chance of winning and finding dinner, and the chinchillas could enjoy beating up a hawk!

That concludes my report, so I hoped you learned a lot about chinchillas!