Chinchilla Facts

Chinchillas did not begin as pets. They were first used in fur trading that goes as far back as the 16th century.

When the Spanish conquered the Chinca Indians in the 1500s they discovered the chinchillas. In Europe, the demand for these animals grew in the late 1700s and early 1800s. A chinchilla fur coat was a must for royalty. However it took 100 chinchillas to make one coat. So, chinchillas dwindled quickly in population. The Chilean government, seeing the chinchilla on its way to becoming extinct began passing laws to outlaw the killing of these beautiful rodents.

A man by the name of M.F. Chapman was working in Chile in 1918 where he saw his first chinchilla.

A resident of Chile had brought a chinchilla into the mining camp to sell. Chapman purchased the rodent and took a big interest in the animal. He persuaded the Chilean government to allow him to go into the Andes Mountains to capture these animals.

Chapman was the man responsible for bringing these animals to the United States. He started a trapping party with 23 men a year later, however the capture was a little bit of a challenge. With chinchillas nearly being extinct from excessive trapping for their pelts, the little animals were hard to find.

In three years they were only able to capture 11 and only three were female. With this scarcity, Chapman was aware of how rare these animals were, and took every precaution to make sure that they did not lose any to the temperature changes they encountered on the way down from the mountains. The travel down the mountains of Chile took 12 months. All survived the trek. Chapman used blocks of ice and avoided sunlight as he made his way down the mountain with the chinchillas. Success was celebrated when all 11 survived. The chins traveled by coastal steamer to California. While traveling, they celebrated their success when a kit was born on the steamer. The chinchillas arrived in the United States on February 21, 1923.

Chapman's care for these animals was perhaps a bit unheard of, since at this time, most hunters were bringing this animal to near extinction as a direct result of trapping for pelts.

Once the herd was established, their cost soared to $3,200 a pair. By the mid 1960s there were thousands of chinchilla ranches created, and the rodents began to be offered as pets, typically $100 an animal. There are now approximately 3,000 ranches throughout the United States and Canada.