Mountain whiskey: chinchilla, rabbit and squirrel in one creature

In South America, on the arid, rocky slopes of the Andes, incredibly cute animals live - mountain whiskers. In this harsh land, where at night the temperature drops below zero, and Andean cats often lie in wait for gapeous whiskers, eared animals have a hard time.

Despite the incredible resemblance to rabbits, whiskeys belong to the order of rodents. Their dimensions do not exceed 40 centimeters, and they weigh about 1.5 kilograms.

Their closest relatives are chinchillas, with which the viskash unites belonging to the same family (chinchillas), as well as warm and thick fur. It was this fur that allowed the animals to master the highlands of the Andes up to an altitude of 5,000 meters, where negative temperatures at night are not uncommon and an icy wind constantly blows. In the mornings, you can often see how sleepy animals warm themselves under the rays of the rising sun. Mountain whiskers molt, changing the color of the fur coat, depending on the season, from gray to brown.

But if you look at how agile the whiskers run along the rocks, jumping from stone to stone, we can say that they are more like squirrels: the same fluffy tail, agility and maneuverability of movements. Even cougars, skillful hunters of the Andes, whose speed and courage can be envied by any predators, are not able to catch up with an adult and healthy individual. The seemingly clumsy, slow and fatish viskasha seems like easy prey. But it’s worth the cougar to approach too quickly, as the rodent starts to run away, hiding in rocky mounds. During the escape, they reach speeds of up to 40 km / h and can make 3-meter jumps.

Whiskeys are public animals, they live in groups of up to 80 individuals. This helps them escape from predators. When a danger arises, the viskasha begins to bang its tail and make characteristic sounds, notifying its relatives, and the whole company is in a hurry to hide. In addition to pumas and Andean cats, some people who hunt for skins and meat are dangerous enemies of the mountain whiskeys.

These rodents feed on plant foods. And since food is not easy to find in semi-arid rocky areas, mountain whiskeys devote the whole day to this activity.

It is interesting that whiskey has a passion for collecting various small items, beautiful pebbles, feathers, and garbage that they picked up on the road. Often, at the entrance to their burrows one can observe mountains of such treasures. Scientists cannot explain this gathering from a practical point of view, so we can assume that this is a kind of craving for beauty, like in forty, for example.