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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,…


