I stopped at a spot that seemed to have a good mix of plants. That was because it had some exposed, some sheltered, some dry, some wet, and some rocky ground.
And while I made my way slowly through the small boulder field ... It was the field that was small: The boulders were quite large!... Anyway, while I was standing there huffing and puffing to catch my breath, I saw something move...
What was that??
I looked around and moved slowly and carefully till I got a better view...
And it was a rabbit sitting on a rock... But then it saw me and it bounded off for about 10m and disappeared under the boulders... BUT it had a LONG tail!
It was no rabbit... I waited around a bit and looked at some other boulder fields near by, and I saw a couple more of them.
They were about the size of a rabbit or a bit bigger. They were a soft grey colour all over. The tail was about the same length or a bit longer than the rabbit like body and became sort of tufted toward the end. The ears were rabbit like too, but they were a bit shorter than a rabbit.
Behaviour wise, they seemed like Pikas in North American mountains... Inhabiting the rock mounds and eating the tussock grass... With the males sitting as lookouts at the top of boulders to sound the alarm if needed. Hmmm
I managed to take a picture of one and then I went about the cussion plant errand I had started,
I figured Id ask someone later what it was :)
But on the ride, I thought about it more and decided that the closest thing I knew of that looked like that was a Chinchilla... And hey, where are they from anyway? So I asked about small animals in the alpine when I got to town and people didnt really know much... When I suggested Chinchilla, they seemed to think it was maybe possible but there was also another critter they thought more likely.
So, I had no choice, I Google searched the subject...
Definitely from this area!
Definitely Chinchilla like critter!
But having looked closely at my picture and the Chinchillas on the internet... I have to say that I think I saw something else.... My critter was a bit bigger, and the tail was quite different...Ill have to find someone local who really does know what I saw before I decide :)
But what I didnt know about Chinchillas and that I do now, having done some reading, is how rare they are! Apparently they were almost hunted to extinction around 1900 for the fur trade. There were two species of them and one seems to be maybe extinct now with the estimated wild population of the other at only 5500 or so!!!
Another "Mind boggling" fact is that apparently in 1981 or so, a single wild chinchilla pelt sold for $49,000 in Japan !!!!
Needless to say they are completely protected these days... But not the captive bred ones (of which there are quite a few in the mountain areas of the USA - and no doubt a few escaped ones too), so there is now ample supply of pelts from captive raised ones (which apparently are better quality than the wild ones) ... for those people who just need to wear dead native animal skins :)
So, we will wait till I know for sure what it was but for now, Im calling it the "Peruvian Long Tailed rabbit" :)))
...
Latest update (Having spoken to more people and then looked some more stuff up on the web) is that it is in fact a Viscacha... member of the chinchilla family but not so rare !
