Chinchilla history is vague up to the time when the Spaniards traveled to South America in 1524. In South America the Spaniards encountered a tribe of Indians called "Chinchas" who introduced them to the little furry animals. The Chinchas wore the pelts of the little guys and at the same time kept them as pets. The Spaniards named the little furry guys after the Indian tribe as "Chinchillas" - literally "Little Chinchas". They took pelts back with them to Europe and started the Chin fur business.
Unfortunately, all through recent history, the chinchilla's history has been tied to the fur business. In fact, around the turn of this century (1910 actually) the chinchillas were virtually trapped into extinction. Luckily, the governments of the countries involved banned the trapping of the animals and the sale of the pelts. Although, eventually raising chinchillas on ranches replaced trapping as a source of pelts for the fur market.
The first known chinchilla ranch was founded in Chile in 1874 in Vallenar by John Murry, an English member of the famous scientific expedition "Challenger." He raised the species known as Brevicaudata. Next was a ranch founded in Santiago, Chile in 1895 by Francisco Irarrazabal. He won a gold medal in 1896 at the Santiago Agricultural Fair (the first chinchilla show). The largest ranch known was the Attahualpa Ranch of Fritz Ferger in the 1930's. At one time the ranch had 1300 Brevicaudatas.
In February 1923 an American mining engineer, Mathias F. Chapman, brought the chins to North America. He was in charge of several mines in the Andes for Anaconda Mines near the town of Potrerillos in northern Chile when, like the Spaniards before him, he was introduced to the chinchilla. He took an immediate liking to the little guys and hoped that he could take a few of them home to California as pets.
The export of chins was illegal, however, he eventually persuaded the authorities to permit him to take eleven chins with him back to the States. Eight male and three female Chinchilla Lanigeras. He brought them down from the mountains and arranged passage on a Japanese freighter. And the story goes, (although this is almost certainly apocryphal) that all the chins in North America are descended from Chapman's.
Sources:
A Brief History of Chins
Empress Chinchilla Breeders
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September 3rd, 2007 at 11:05 am
I have been trying to find some historical information on Chinchillas in Europe, especially in Poland. I have found some websites that are written in Polish. I found one snippet of info in English saying that chinchilla fur became popular in Europe around that late 1700s. Is there any more to the history than that?
February 18th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Hi, Dora. Yes, he's a senior. In the wild, life expectancy is 8 years so that's when we consider a chinchilla in captivity to be a senior. Average lifespan in captivity is 10-15 although there are instances where chins have lived into their 20's.
February 18th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
What it a average life expectancy of a pet chinchilla? I have had mine for 14 years and I feel her time is drawing near. Thanks for your time, Dora.
October 5th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
You make a strong case and it looks like you've looked much deeper in to the topic than we have. Looks like it's time to update the page. Thanks for being so thorough in with your explanations.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:58 am
No, actually, a totally different animal, they just occupy the same Family suborder which happens to be labelled 'Chinchillidae'. Two different animals, same family, DIFFERENT different Genus. Chinchillas do not share the Genus classification with viscachas and that's where the distinction lies, they're in separate Genus' because they're separate animals, that is, further down the scientific classification they're specified as different by having their own Genus.
The Family 'Chinchilladae' contains two different animals with their own Genus and Species: Lanigera and Brevicaudata are Species under the Genus 'Chinchilla' and Northern Viscacha, Southern Viscacha, Wolffsohn's Viscacha, and Plains Viscacha are Species under the Genus 'Viscacha'. The viscacha Genus and Species info I looked up just now to get those classification details (http://www.teachersparadise.com/ency/en/wikipedia/c/ch/chinchilla.html), but most of this is what I know from other resources in doing extensive book and online studies so it's integrated for me now but still based on fact, not a casual observation or conjecture, I value having fact to rely on too. I've seen a couple sites mistake viscachas for chinchillas and I'll be updating my site to reflect the difference and hopefully defuse confusion somewhat, as it is somewhat confusing.
For pics of wild chinchillas, go here, I'm sure they'd be happy to accommodate you if you requested permission to post: http://sapphire.indstate.edu/%7Edeanea/photo.html#wild Besides having a more bluish tinge, they're pretty much the standard grays you see today.