Show chinchilla tiny native e of chi chile le Is aristocrat of fur bearers wa W lk x 4 SO RARE ARE coats made from the fur of this little rodent the chinchilla that leading furriers know accurately their number and their ownership originally the furs were imported front from chile but in the past 20 years a californian has been supplying the market with pelts of animals raised on his chinchilla ranch squirrel like Rod rodents crits pelt Is highly k valued by furriers pre prepared ared by national society washington ashington D C service the chills chill winds of winter bring about the sale of tho thousands of fur coats but among them will be vary very few garments fashioned from chinchilla fur for the very good reason that chinchilla pelts are strictly limited in number so few are the chinchilla coats in existence that leading fur dealers know pretty accurately their number and their ownership little larger than a mans hand the chinchilla a rodent weighs about 20 ounces when full grown of appearance the valuable little creature has dense soft pearly gray fur in community burrows on the eastern slopes of the andes in chile peru and bolivia chinchillas live at altitudes between and 12 feet nowhere aase have they been found in a wild state hunted for many years tears hunted since ages past chinchillas still offer hope to furriers for years 1 I aw X N fil 1 i N t HERES A FORTUNE in chinchilla pelts the furs pictured here are valued at about and 78 of the little animals had to give up their lives for this prize to ge be made into a fur coat to come more than a century before columbus discovered america incas wove warm cloth from the fur even domesticated the animals and ate their flesh after shearing the fleece some 40 years ago c chinchilla hin chilla fur provided an important industry for chile today chinchilla farms are spreading throughout the united states and even to lands across the atlantic ocean in her native habitat a female chinchilla chinchilla bears from one to two litters a year but in mild california mama chinchilla can have three litters with an average of two young in each after less than 20 years the original 12 chinchillas fr from om south america have multiplied to more than 1000 on a farm at ingle wood calif other farms in idaho wyoming utah pennsylvania wisconsin and new york began with breedi breeding ing stock from the california farm A single pair of chinchillas for breeding purposes has been sold for as much as single pelts however r usually cost between 85 and depending upon their quality it takes approximately skins to make a full length coat which sells in some cases for or more |