What is the maximal age a Short-tailed chinchilla reaches?
An adult Short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla chinchilla) usually gets as old as 10 years.
Short-tailed chinchillas are around 111 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 8.35 kg (18.41 lbs) and measure 3.6 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Chinchillidae family (genus: Chinchilla), a Short-tailed chinchilla caries out around 2 little ones per pregnancy, which happens around 2 times a year. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 30.5 cm (1′ 1″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

The short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla chinchilla; formerly C. brevicaudata)—also called the Bolivian, Peruvian, or royal chinchilla—is an endangered species of South American rodent, and one of two species in the genus Chinchilla. Their original native range extended throughout the Andes Mountains of Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. These animals were exploited for their luxurious fur, causing their numbers in the wild to dwindle. The other species of chinchilla is also endangered; C. lanigera, or the long-tailed chinchilla, is the wild ancestor of the domestic chinchilla, which is commonly raised as a pocket pet throughout the world.
Animals of the same family as a Short-tailed chinchilla
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Chinchillidae):
- Short-tailed chinchilla becoming 10 years old
- Long-tailed chinchilla becoming 11.25 years old
- Wolffsohn’s viscacha growing to a mass of 2.68 kgs (5.91 lbs)
- Northern viscacha becoming 19.5 years old
- Southern viscacha with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Plains viscacha becoming 9.33 years old
Animals that reach the same age as Short-tailed chinchilla
With an average age of 10 years, Short-tailed chinchilla are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Jaguarundi usually reaching 10.58 years
- Chinese ferret-badger usually reaching 10.5 years
- Doria’s tree-kangaroo usually reaching 8 years
- Brown mouse lemur usually reaching 12 years
- Yuma myotis usually reaching 8.75 years
- Bioko Allen’s bushbaby usually reaching 12 years
- Greater fairy armadillo usually reaching 12 years
- Pallas’s long-tongued bat usually reaching 10 years
- Horsfield’s tarsier usually reaching 12 years
- White-tailed mongoose usually reaching 12 years
Animals with the same number of babies Short-tailed chinchilla
The same number of babies at once (2) are born by:
- Little pied bat
- True’s shrew mole
- Malayan tree rat
- Selous’s mongoose
- Mountain treeshrew
- Cameroon clawless otter
- Broad-toothed mouse
- Common rock rat
- Brown hyena
- Chinese mole shrew
Weighting as much as Short-tailed chinchilla
A fully grown Short-tailed chinchilla reaches around 499 grams (1.1 lbs). So do these animals:
- Guayaquil squirrel with 433 grams
- Baja California rock squirrel with 551 grams
- Giant tree-rat with 584 grams
- Long-tailed armored tree-rat with 439 grams
- Southern tuco-tuco with 403 grams
- Goya tuco-tuco with 400 grams
- Giant pocket gopher with 499 grams
- Weyland ringtail possum with 456 grams
- Painted tree-rat with 519 grams
- Azara’s tuco-tuco with 400 grams
Animals as big as a Short-tailed chinchilla
Those animals grow as big as a Short-tailed chinchilla:
- Painted ringtail possum with 26.5 cm (0′ 11″)
- Weyland ringtail possum with 31 cm (1′ 1″)
- Goeldi’s marmoset with 28 cm (1′ 0″)
- Long-footed potoroo with 35.9 cm (1′ 3″)
- Western gray squirrel with 29.4 cm (1′ 0″)
- Indonesian mountain weasel with 30.9 cm (1′ 1″)
- Three-striped night monkey with 35.8 cm (1′ 3″)
- Florida naked-tailed rat with 27 cm (0′ 11″)
- European polecat with 35.9 cm (1′ 3″)
- Long-tailed chinchilla with 30.5 cm (1′ 1″)
