The extirpation and current status of wild chinchillas Chinchilla lanigera and C. brevicaudata Original Research Article

The short-tailed chinchilla Chinchilla brevicaudata and the long-tailed chinchilla C. lanigera were once widely distributed along the central Andes and adjacent mountains. The high quality of their fur motivated the harvesting of chinchillas for the fur market. Commercial hunting, beginning in 1828, became a common and widespread activity in northern Chile. As market prices and the demand for skins increased in Europe and the United States, the number of pelts exported rose steadily. During 1900-09, the number of skins officially exported exceeded half a million per year. The continuous and intense harvesting rate, however, was not sustainable and the number of chinchillas hunted declined until the resource was considered economically extinct by 1917. Concurrently, market prices for the skins increased exponentially over time. A ban against chinchilla hunting in 1929 only increased the demand for skins. The last record for a short-tailed chinchilla sighting in the wild was c. 1953. The long-tailed chinchilla was also considered extinct in the wild, but was “re-discovered” in 1975. Currently, in two separate localities in north-central Chile a few scattered colonies of long-tailed chinchillas remain. Although chinchilla protection laws were enacted in 1929, they were not strictly enforced until 1983, with the establishment of the Chinchilla National Reserve. Chinchilla numbers continue to decline and possible causes are considered.