Pearsen 1971 Species account Abrocoma cinerea Feb 11 6 am NE Tarata, 12,900 ft. Large Abrocoma set at large opening in a rock retaining wall below road and baited with ripened rolled oats and cracked corn. Caught a large abrocoma between 6 and 8 pm. Doiled in trap. Feb 12 Put into screen cage. Very docile, ate blossoms and leaves of Haplophyllum Sabidophyllum quadrangulare as soon as offered, but ignored Barbarea, Sevens, and cactus. A Phyllotis noguerai was caught in a tree a few feet away, and at 8 p.m. a Bolomys bedecollii was in the same trap; released. Feb 13 Bolomys again in the trap at 6:30 a.m., penned. There was a half cup of abrocoma droppings on the floor of the hole in the wall (4 feet above ground). Droppings look like mouse, some with longitudinal lines. On our way back from the campfire we stopped at noon at our camp at 6 am NE Tarata and there in the farthest least rocky part of the pampa was a sprayed abrocoma cinerea. Between 6 and 10 vehicles had passed during the dark hours. Our captive continues to be completely "plastic," likes to be handled. Have tried him on a great assortment of foods but he has eaten only two stems + blossoms of Sabidophyllum quadrangulare and carrots, at night he makes a very soft, mellow, gentle pig-like sound. Feb 25 Took him up to 12,600 and released him under Sabido quadrangulare. He ate Sabido, a tiny succulent yellow-flowered forb, a few leaves of Phylepis, and bark + a few twigs of Ephedra. Feb 26 Ate lots of Phylepis overnight. But actually active only late at night (4 am?)