野生龙猫生活在哪里?
首先纠正一下,世界上没有所谓的“野生龙猫”。 龙猫,学名北票绒鼠(Chinchilla brevicaudata),属于啮齿目鼠科的其中一个品种,和南美洲的原生性小鼠是近亲。这个属里还有两个类似的小鼠物种,分别是尾绒鼠(C. cavernosus)和短尾龙猫(C. felis),不过现在通常不把这两个种归类在龙猫属内。
龙猫原产于南美洲的安第斯群山之中,主要分布在海拔2500-4500米之间的山区。[1] 早期发现于厄瓜多尔的基多省(Cordoba)和高乔省(Tungurahua),随后又在哥伦比亚、秘鲁及玻利维亚的高山地区陆续被发现。由于人类活动的频繁影响,现在的龙猫分布可能要比过去要更为广泛一些。 上图:厄瓜多尔的基多省是高乔省的邻省之一 这三种鼠科动物的区别除了体形之外最明显的特征就是尾巴的长短了: 尾绒鼠拥有非常长的尾巴,差不多是身长的两倍;而短尾龙猫的尾巴则比身体矮一头。至于龙猫,它的尾巴长度介于两者之间。
关于这三种小动物的生活习性,因为本人并不是很了解,因此就只能复制粘贴一段网上的介绍了。上段文字来自百度百科,下面的一段文字则是来自维基词典[2]: Chinchillas are herbivorous and only active during the day. They spend most of their time eating, sleeping or socializing but will escape into tunnels they have dug in the sand when threatened by predators. When disturbed, they may stand on their hind legs with their tail over their back and hiss loudly at the intruder, a threat display that works well against small animals but is ineffective against humans. If frightened, chinchillas can be very aggressive and will bite if handled, although not often enough to draw blood. Despite this apparent weakness for predatory mammals, like mustelids, skunks, badgers and hawks, there are no known cases of a chinchilla being actually killed by any of these animals. In fact, hawks are able to catch them by surprise as the latter are watching the former from high up in the trees where it is safe to eat.
When running,chinchillas hold their tail upright so it is visible above the horizon line. This behavior signals other chinchillas to keep away. The odorless body pheromones released by males help maintain the purity of the gene pool. Mating takes place mainly between December and March, though a second peak occurs in August. A pregnancy lasts about four weeks and females usually give birth to two young after mating, which are born blind and hairless and weigh less than one gram at birth. After eight days, the pups begin to see, hear and smell, and within three weeks of life, they are mobile and weaned. At nine weeks, the young are ready to breed, while adult chinchillas can live for almost five years. 上面两段文字的配图都是