Chinchilla

A rodent with the densest fur of any land mammal/Small Animals

Chinchillas are small rodents native to the Andes Mountains of South America. They possess the densest fur of any land mammal, with about 20,000 hairs per square centimeter, roughly 60 hairs growing from each follicle. This incredibly soft and thick fur originally evolved to keep them warm at elevations above 3,000 meters. Because their fur is so dense, chinchillas cannot get wet without risking fungal infections, so they bathe in volcanic dust instead. They can jump up to 1.8 meters high and live in colonies called herds.