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Updated: May 27, 2025
Many other forms may also be noticed, but usually they appear to be only modifications of the most common Y-shaped system. As I have remarked that its manner of burrowing has peculiarly adapted the vizcacha to the pampas, it may be asked what particular advantage a species that makes a wide-mouthed burrow possesses over those that excavate in the usual way.
Sooner or later, perhaps after many months, other individuals join the solitary Vizcacha, and they become the parents of innumerable generations in the same village: old men, who have lived all their lives in one district, remember that many of the Vizcacheras around them existed when they were children. It is always a male who begins the new village.
But as soon as these wild regions are settled by man the pumas are exterminated, and the sole remaining foe of the vizcacha is the fox, comparatively an insignificant one. Certainly the vizcachas are not much injured by being compelled to relinquish the use of one of their kennels for a season or permanently; for, if the locality suits him, the fox remains with them always.
And in the case of the latter species, it adds to the marvel when we find that the vizcacha, according to Water-house, is the lowest of the order in its marsupial affinities. The vizcacha is the most common rodent on the pampas, and the Rodent order is represented by the largest number of species.
But the fox has ever a relentless foe in man, and meets with no end of bitter persecutions; it is consequently much more abundant in desert or thinly settled districts than in such as are populous, so that in these the check the vizcachas receive from the foxes is not appreciable. The abundance of cattle on the pampas has made it unnecessary to use the vizcacha as an article of food.
Molina, in his Natural History of Chill, says the vizcacha uses its tail as a weapon; but then Molina is not always reliable. I have observed vizcachas all my life, and never detected them making use of any weapon except their chisel teeth.
In connection with the sociability of the Vizcacha, we must take into consideration the fact that Vizcachas possess a wonderfully varied and expressive language, and are engaged in perpetual discussion all night long. The Vizcacha has been carefully studied by Mr.
It is necessary to add that since the following pages were written at my home on the pampas a great war of extermination has been waged against this animal by the landowners, which has been more fortunate in its results or unfortunate if one's sympathies are with the vizcacha than the war of the Australians against their imported rodent the smaller and more prolific rabbit.
I have been minute in describing the habitations of the vizcacha, as I esteem the subject of prime importance in considering the zoology of this portion of America.
Another remarkable habit of the vizcacha, that of dragging to and heaping about the mouth of his burrow every stalk he cuts down, and every portable object that by dint of great strength he can carry, has been mentioned by Azara, Darwin, and others.
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