Category: Mammals
The long-tailed or Chilean chinchilla are popular as pets and in the fur trade, but their wild counterparts are critically endangered due to illegal hunting and habitat destruction. They are native to the barren, arid, and rugged areas of the mountain chains connecting the coastal mountain ranges and the Andes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-tailed_chinchilla
http://eol.org/pages/326926/details
http://www.petsource.org/small-animal-species/5438-chinchilla.html
The Opossum Ain’t Playing
Many people associate playing dead with the opossum - that’s where the term “playing opossum” comes from, after all. But something you might not know is that when an opossum feigns death, it really goes all out! Not content with merely closing its eyes and laying down, the opossum begins drooling profusely as if ill or even rabid, releases a putrid, greenish fluid from its anal glands that makes it smell like a decaying corpse, and after losing consciousness may even mimic rigor mortis! This is quite the elaborate routine, but it isn’t conscious: when an opossum plays dead, it has actually gone into shock due to stress.
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Discover Animals is a web-based educational resource offered by the NAIA
