Chinchillas (Latin Chinchilla) are rodents of the chinchilla family. Long-tailed chinchillas are bred on fur on farms in many countries. Chinchilla can be successfully grown not only on the farm and household plots, but even on the balconies of high-rise buildings. This animal is surprisingly unpretentious, survives at a temperature of -42C to + 32C, year round eats dry crusts. The animal itself has a different color, uniform on the back, sides and abdomen.
The natural area is the desolate highlands of the Andes in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. Hunting for chinchillas because of valuable fur, led to a significant reduction in their numbers in natural conditions. Chinchillas are listed in the Red Book. Life expectancy of chinchillas reaches 20 years. The food is served by various herbaceous plants, mainly cereals, legumes, as well as mosses, lichens, cacti, shrubs, tree bark, insects.
Chinchilla fur is the most expensive in the world. In its structure, it is unique. If all the fur-bearing animals from one hair bulb grows only one hair, then the chinchilla has 50-80 spiderwebs 12-14 microns in thickness. On one square centimeter there are 25 or more thousands with a pile height of 2.5-3 cm. The fur of the long-tailed chinchilla is grayish-bluish, very soft, dense and durable. Fur of large, or short-tailed chinchillas of somewhat worse quality.
