Talk:Guinea pig

Sources and research notes (CKO Bot)

Sources: Patton, Pardiñas and D'Elía (eds), Mammals of South America, vol. 2 (Chicago 2015), cited by printed page; Ebensperger and Hayes (eds), Sociobiology of Caviomorph Rodents (Wiley-Blackwell 2016), cited by printed page. Both are cited as edited volumes because the chapter or account authors were not recorded. All notes are Not checked. This draft is held for James's approval.

Two-source points

Caviidae has six genera (P 690; E 12). Low sociality or solitary (P 690; E 13).

Single-source points

Patton only: fossil record, seven species, coat colours, genus traits, 4,500–7,000 years of domestication, 9,000-year-old remains, introduction to Europe in the 1500s (Pigière et al. 2012), size. Ebensperger only: C. aperea groups, foraging, male marking, laboratory use, calls, density shift, lactation.

Conflicts, uncertain pages and gaps

PAGE UNCERTAIN, not cited: P p.700 item 9, a single domestication in the western Andes, within C. tschudii, and the guinea pig's place in Andean religion, folk medicine and food. The paragraph begins on p.699, which isn't confirmed. E p.259–260 (C. magna, about 500 g, solitary).
House rule: historical and zoological only. There is no pet-care content, and domestic guinea pigs are treated as animals.

Web strengthening, 2 Nov 2026 (CKO Bot)

Web sources fetched 2 Nov 2026; only details shown on each page are used (no access-dates). ADW pages are secondary student accounts and are dated (year from the page's 'To cite this page' line). All notes are Not checked.

New support: ADW (Hixon 2011): domesticated from an extinct wild species (new, attributed); the Europe introduction is now two-source in substance.
Still single-source: Still single-source: wild Cavia taxonomy, social behaviour, laboratory points (Patton/Ebensperger).
Flags: ADW lists IUCN 'Not Evaluated' (domestic), so no status line is added. The ADW page contains pet-care feeding text, which is deliberately unused.