Totoro in the movie and Totoro in reality.
The animated film Totoro was so impressive that it was released in Japan on April 16, 1988, and the film also made Japanese animation famous and the name Miyazaki famous all over the world. He made the character of Totoro ingrained, and he has heard of the film in Japan and the whole world.
It is said that Totoro is very popular with children in the local area, and can even be described as a household name. Some newspapers also published articles saying that Totoro is one of the greatest cartoon characters in history, and it is a existence that can really bring happiness and childlike fun to children, which can be said to be that he let more people know the existence of this creature "Totoro".
After all, cartoons are just cartoons, and at first some people think that there is no such thing as "Totoro" in reality, but then they find that they are wrong! In the animation, it looks round and rolling, and the two small ears on the head are particularly eye-catching, especially the scene where it stands on the station sign is very classic, so what does the totoro look like in reality, and does it look like it in the animation? We can make a comparison.
The real Totoro still looks a bit like in the cartoon, it is all a cute look, the body is round and chubby. However, this is not the point, the image of the totoro in the cartoon once made some people think that it was a cat that looked a little strange, but the real totoro was a big-eared mouse...
The word cat is not necessarily a cat, just like a panda, which was originally called a cat bear, an animal of the bear family; a hippopotamus is not a horse, a penguin is not a goose... It seems that these people who think it is a cat are careless!
Totoro, also known as the velvet rat or chinchilla, belongs to the species of woolly rat. However, it is much larger than the ordinary mouse we are familiar with, although the appearance is a little different from the cartoon, and the totoro in the cartoon should be the shape after the magic change!
The real totoro tail is very long and the tail hair is long and fluffy, the whole body is wrapped in uniform fluff, the fluff shape is like silk, fine and soft, so it is also called a woolly rat! Totoro is actually native to South America and other places, is located in the Andes under the size of a rabbit chipmunk, adult body length of about 35 cm (not counting the tail, tail length of about one-third of the length of the body), the body of the clump of hairs each pore up to 60-80 hairs, which effectively prevents the parasite boarding invasion.
Totoro is a social animal that habitually inhabits crevices, mountains and burrows in rocks. They are highly fertile but have only half the survival rate. Wild totoro and domestic chinchillas have slightly different diets, for example, wild totoroes will eat nuts such as seeds, while domestic chinchillas generally only eat hay.
The current living condition of totoro.
As wild totoroes were overexploited in their place of origin, populations plummeted and were declared endangered as early as 1914! In the late 20th century and early 21st century, wild totoroes were no longer visible in Bolivia and Peru.
The reason for the sharp decline of wild totoro cats is not only because of their cute appearance and being caught as pets, but also because the fur of totoro is beautiful and soft, which is ideal for making fur. According to reports, a totoro coat needs about 150 totoro skins! What is even more ironic is that totoro fur is in short supply in the market, and the breeding industry dedicated to the supply of totoro fur has flourished, which has made wild totoro breathe, otherwise the fate of wild totoro will be now, it is really difficult to predict...