User:Menacing djungelskog/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.)

Short-tailed chinchilla

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose to edit the Wikipedia article on short-tailed chinchillas. Growing up, I was fascinated by the idea of having an exotic animal as a pet. As a child, I remember going to the zoo and going to an interactive animal session. We learned about exotic animals such as chinchillas, snakes, insects, and frogs. After, I got to hold and pet the chinchilla. I remember being amazed at how soft its fur was and I wondered why its hair was so soft. The short-tailed chinchilla is listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List. I think most people don't know that both species of chinchillas are endangered because they're hunted for their fur and skins. We often think of chinchillas as just being cute animals that we sell as exotic animals. I had this impression before researching chinchillas and discovering that they're threatened. Now that my perspective has changed, I want to educate others and raise awareness around the conservation of chinchillas. Menacing djungelskog (talk) 15:53, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The article on short-tailed chinchilla provides a very brief summary on the species. The first few sentences at the top of the page introduce the species by names, origin, and introduces the topic of endangerment for the species. The opening paragraph summarizes the main sections in the article. The lead doesn't include information that's not expanded upon in another section. The lead is very concise and provides a good overview of the species in general. The content of the article is somewhat up-to-date. However, I believe that statistics from at least the last five years should be included in the conservation section of the article. Updated numbers on population trends should be added. I don't think any particular content is missing, but more detail and a few new sections could be added to increase the amount of information on the page. The article doesn't include any of Wikipedia's equity gaps. It does talk about the fur trade and animal poaching, but not in great detail. The tone and claims of the article are very neutral, but I think a section on cultural significance of chinchillas could be added. Overall, the article is concise, easy to understand, and well-organized, but it can be improved by adding more information and figures. There are two images of the species and a map showing where they originate. The images that are in the article are well-captioned, but aren't specific to any section. The images could be of better quality. I think that this article is mostly underdeveloped because it has a main article with an overview of chinchillas as a species. There are two sub-articles on each of the two species if chinchillas. Since the main article on chinchillas is quite detailed, the editors may have not felt inclined to go into more detail.