Plains Viscacha - Ecology and Behaviour

Ecology and Behaviour

They live in communal burrow systems in groups containing one or more males, several females and immatures. Viscachas forage in groups at night and aggregate underground during the day. All members of a group use burrows throughout the communal burrow system and participate in digging at the burrows. Alarm calls are given primarily by adult males. The long-term social unit of the plains viscacha is the female group. Resident males disappear each year and new males join groups of females. Dominance is absent among females. Members of a social group share a common foraging area around the communal burrow system, and feed on a variety of grasses and forbs, occasionally browsing on low shrubs.

Plains viscachas ovulate over 200 eggs per cycle (in comparison, humans usually only ovulate one egg per cycle).