The Vizcacha: “Little-known Small Animal with a Promising Economic Future”

photo © Joseph Tobias

Okay. I didn’t invent that headline. I swiped it from a book about small and miniature animals titled Microlivestock: Little-known Small Animals with Promising Economic Futures (1991), published by the U.S. Office of International Affairs and the National Research Council.

The mountain vizcacha, a furry rabbit-like rodent that lives in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, is featured in chapter 24 of Microlivestock, which also has a lot to say about small animals you already know about (turkey, rabbit, quail), small animals you may never had heard of (agouti, coypu, hutia) and small animals that sound like the products of dubious genetic experiments (the Giant Rat, micro-cattle, the micro-goat and the micro-pig).

I don’t think the northern vizcacha, the species of mountain vizcacha that is native to Peru, would like to hear what this book has to say: Poor people in remote places like the Andes need to raise and eat more small animals like (for example) the vizcacha. The message is couched in terms that sound appealing if you are a field manager with an NGO that works to alleviate hunger in developing countries, or if you are a farmer in La Paz who can’t afford to keep cows and sheep to sustain your family.

If you are a wild vizcacha living with 100 of your relatives in a cozy rock-warren on Mount Ausangate, on the other hand, hearing that a committee of livestock experts claims you make good eatin’ is a bummer.

photo c. Rodrigo Verdugo

I suspect that no vizcacha in Peru has gotten wind of its promising economic future, however, because what vizcachas mainly do is sun themselves on rocks. It can get very cold in the Andes regions where the vizcacha lives, between 3,000 to 5,000 meters above sea level, and so vizcachas need those sun baths and their thick furry coats to survive. That extreme furryness also is what makes them cute to the point of redonkulousness. (See redonk Photo-shopped image at end of post.)

Other key facts about the northern vizcacha (also spelled “viscacha”):

• it has a long furry tail;
• it is related to the chinchilla;
• it is vegetarian;
• it is very social and lives in large groups in rock warrens separated into family “apartments”;
• it is nonaggressive and nonterritorial; when confronted with danger, it issues high-pitched squeals to warn other vizcachas to flee to the warren.

You might think think that the people who makes coats and collars and muffs of animal fur would be eager to get their hands on the timid northern vizcacha. Ironically, the animal is so small (weighing between 2 and 4 pounds) that hunters and furriers can’t be bothered skinning it. There are bigger mountain vizcacha in other parts of South America, and those cousins are the targets of hunters and farmers, who treat them as pests because they eat grassland for cattle.

In contrast, Peru’s northern vizcacha leads a pretty idyllic life. It might make an occasional meal for a puma or a campesino, but generally other beings leave it alone.

Unless large numbers of motivated people begin to get serious about raising vizcachas for rodent stew, this small animal’s personal economic future appears promising.

photo courtesy god knows what PhotoShop maniac. I found the image on www.kikourou.net, where a French runner who calls himself “vizcacha” posted it in reference to his blog. Bon chance!