Short-tailed Chinchilla - Commercialization

Commercialization

Many chinchillas are bred in captivity for their fur, which is very fine and dense, and is in high demand in the fur industry. Commercial hunting began in 1829 and increased every year, by about half a million skins annually, as fur and skin demand increased in the United States and Europe. “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". Hunting chinchillas became illegal in 1929, but laws were not effectively enforced until 1983. The last short-tailed chinchilla sighting in the wild was in 1953.