Chinchilla

Fact sheet
Class: Mammal
Size: 15cm – 50cm
Weight: 0,5 kg – 7,0 kg
Age: 3 – 20 years
Appearance: blue-grey
Food: Grasses, plants, herbs
Original country of origin: South America
Social skills: Herd animal

Facts
Chinchillas look like a cross between guinea pigs and squirrels. In fact, they are closely related to guinea pigs. When chinchillas are attacked and held by enemies like birds of prey, skunks, wild cats or snakes, they opt for spontaneous hair loss. The attackers then have only a clump of hair „in their fingers“ instead of the animal and the rodents escape in most cases completely. Chinchillas have a silky soft, thick fur. To care for it, they do not need any care products. They roll them in sand with pleasure. Not only do chinchillas have more hair per root than we do… They have 20,000 hairs per square inch. Humans only have about 100 hairs per square inch. At the same time, it is 30 times thinner than human hair.