HISTORY
The Chinchilla is a native of the Andes region of South America, where it lives in the wild. In the early part of the 20th Century, skins of this animal were shipped into Europe and the United States by the bale. Chile alone shipped over 435,000 pelts in 1899. This mass-trapping nearly lead to its extinction. To save the breed, Mathias F. Chapman, a United States mining engineer, in 1923 caught eleven animals and shipped them to the United States. These animals became the foundation stock for Chinchilla farming in America. Today, this industry is worldwide and there are several thousand ranchers and more than one million Chinchillas. These animals are being raised for fur, for sale as breeding stock and for use as pets. Small and inquisitive, their easy care and simple feeding make them an ideal family memb
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