Chinchillas originated from the arid and rocky regions of the Chilean Andes, where they generally tend to live at heights of between 800 to 6.500 meters, in communities within the rock crevices or burrows. Wild chinchillas appear to be active above ground in the early morning and evening and can be seen feeding on seeds, grains, fruit, herbs and moss.

Chinchillas have been know since prior to the sixteenth century when Spanish explorers first reached South America and admired the warm, lightweight clothing that had been made by the local population from the chinchilla's pelts. It was these explorers that were responsible for introducing chinchilla fur into Europe after bringing pelts back from their travels. As the fur became more and more popular, the intensive trapping of the animal almost led to it's extinction as over 100 pelts were required to produce one fur coat.
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There were many unsuccessful attempts to capture chinchillas and bring them down from the mountains into captivity with many of the animals dying during the journey down the mountain. The first successful trip down the mountains was with 36 chinchillas that were taken to a farm close to San Antonio de los Cobre in Argentina, but unfortunately, the animals did not survive in captivity.
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The first man to succeed in getting the chinchillas into captivity was the American mining engineer, Mathias Chapman, who not only succeeded in bringing them down the mountains without any fatalities but also transported them by boat to California and even had a kit born during the journey!

Following the success that Chapman had with his captive breeding programme, extensive 'ranch breeding' began throughout North America and Canada

It was not until after World war 2 that this spread to Europe
Due to the breeding programmes used, mutations began to appear in the chinchillas' colours and today a wide variety of colours are available from the original standard grey, including Wilson white, Tower beige, The Gunning black (which we now know as Black velvet) and violet.

At the back of the brochure there is a small section to cut off and send on to the Chapman chinchilla sales co. (Inglewood) For information on how to become a part of the chinchilla industry

The Imperial Chinchilla brochure Issued by Chapman Chinchilla sales co.

The ranch breeding provided the pelts needed to make the many expensive garments that were proving more and more popular and it was not until recent years that the heightened social conscience regarding the wearing of fur garments has led to chinchilla breeders needing to look elsewhere to gain profit from their animals and with this, the chinchilla as a domestic pet was born.