To which high-altitude mountain range are chinchillas native?
Answer
The high Andes Mountains of South America.
Chinchillas are endemic to the challenging environment of the high Andes Mountains, located across several South American countries, including Chile and Peru. Their evolutionary adaptations, most famously their incredibly dense fur, developed specifically to cope with the cold, arid, and rocky grassland conditions prevalent at those high elevations. The *C. lanigera* species, for example, has a historical association concentrated within a smaller area of central Chile within this larger Andean context. This native environment dictates their physiological sensitivities, such as their susceptibility to heat and humidity, due to their insulation being perfectly suited for dry cold.
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