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The Short-tailed Chinchilla (Chinchilla brevicaudata), also called the Bolivian, Peruvian, and Royal chinchilla, is an endangered species of rodent. Originally from the Andes Mountains in Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, the chinchilla was brought to California by Mathius F. Chapman in 1923. The rodents were very popular because of their luxurious fur, causing their numbers to dwindle greatly. Today, many chinchillas, though mostly the long-tailed species, are kept as pets in the United States.

Characteristics
Chinchillas’ bodies measure between 22.5 to 38 centimeters long and weigh around 18 to 35 ounces. They have short front limbs and long, powerful hind legs that aid in climbing and jumping. Short-tailed chinchillas have thicker necks and shoulders and have much shorter tails than their long-tailed relatives. Chinchillas’ fur comes in a variety of colors such as grey, beige, black, blue-grey and even violet.

Ecology
In the wild, chinchillas burrow their shelters under rocks or the ground. They mostly live in colder climates for which they are well adapted for with their dense fur. Mostly feeding on vegetation, chinchillas store food in pockets located in their mouths. Their teeth grow continually throughout their lives and must saw them down by chewing on rocks. Social animals living in colonies of about one-hundred, chinchillas usually breed in the winter and have litters of one to six offspring.

Commercialization
Many chinchillas are bred in captivity for their fur, which is very fine and dense, and is in high demand in the fur industry. Popular commercial hunting began in 1829 and increased every year, about half a million skins annually, as fur and skin demand increased in the United States and Europe. “The continuous and intense harvesting rate, however, was not sustainable and then number of chinchillas hunted declined until the resource was considered economically extinct by 1917." Hunting chinchillas became illegal in 1929 but laws were not really enforced until 1983.  The last short-tailed chinchilla sighting in the wild was in 1953.

Conservation
Because of the impending extinction of chinchillas, conservation measures were implemented in the 1890s in Chile. However, these measures were unregulated. The 1910 treaty between Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Peru brought the first international efforts to ban hunting and commercialization of chinchillas. Unfortunately, this effort led to great price increase and thus further led to the decline of the remaining populations. The first successful protection law passed in Chile was not until 1929. Today, both the short-tailed and long-tailed chinchillas are listed at “endangered” in Chile and as “threatened” by the IUCN. Because of successful reproduction in captive environments, chinchillas are less hunted in the wild.