Degu Documentary

I think this is an absolutely brilliant idea!!! In particular if degus in the wild can be included. There is soo much we don't know or understand.

That is a reallly good idea degualot. It would require lots of prep especially if you're going to film them native. Have you seen the BBC wildlife filming apprenticeship. I've passed on the link to a couple students before but that was a couple years ago must admit. Seriously, if you want to do this see if you can get some sponsership as well (sorry, spelling is atrocious tonight!).

As you know we can definitely help from the pet owner's side of things and some knowledge about dgus in the wild.

Sounds great! :-)

Have you seen this link to some rare bits of wild degu footage? deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=world&thread=8942&page=1

Aww, sounds brilliant! Really I like this idea.
I also make plans, but I intend to visit Chile and study the degus and its environment.
In my opinion it would be great to include the work of Chilean researchers. I think especially on the work of Mr. Vásquez about locomotion of degus:
www.ieb-chile.cl/focus/people_focus3/pdf/Vasquez%202009%20Quercus.pdf
(it is in Spanisch, but the images alone are IMHO impressive enough)

Also good start points could be the two ecological long-term studies:

Fray Jorge:
www.bios.niu.edu/frayjorge/
(Main researchers: Peter L. Meserve, Julio R. Gutiérrez and Douglas A. Kelt)

Aucó:
www.bio.puc.cl/auco/
(Fabián Jaksic)

Also interesting investigation about degus was done by Francisco Bozinovic and Luis A. Ebensperger from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC):
www.bio.puc.cl/academicos/10834-luis-ebensperger
www.bio.puc.cl/academicos/10832-francisco-bozinovic

and the university:
www.bio.puc.cl/

Preferred habitats and study sites in Chile:

Degus occur between 28 and 35° S (Contreras et al. 1987). They inhabit semi-arid thorn-scrub steppe, the so called Matorral. They prefer open space and avoid dense vegetation, but they search the protection of shrubs and rocks. That means, that they prefer free horizontal sight (predator detection), respective low sized herb layer and shrub canopy protection against areal predators (Ebensperger & Hurtado 2005).

Study sites from north to south:
- Fray Jorge (near La Serena, Coquimbo, around 30° S, 400 km N of Santiago)
- Aucó (near Illapel, around 31° S, 300 km N of Santiago)

Santiago de Chile (33 °S):
- Rinconada de Maipu (Estacion Experimental, Universidad de Chile, 30 km
SW from Santiago)
- Lampa (capture site for degus, 30 km NW of Santiago)
- Quebrada de la Plata ("Silver Canyon", 30 km SW from Santiago)
- Ocoa (biggest palm forest of the endangered Chilean wine palm, once an important resource for our degus, Parque Nacional La Campana; cf. Zunino et al. 1992)
- San Carlos de Apoquindo (1100 m altitude, 20 km E of Santiago; cf. Jaksic 2001)

Literature:

Contreras, L., J. Torres-Mura, J. Yanez (1987): Biogeography of Octodontid rodents: An eco-evolutionary hypothesis. Fieldiana: Zoology, New Series, 39: 401-411.

Ebensperger, L.A. Hurtado, M.J. (2005): On the relationship between herbaceous covervigilance activity of degus (Octodon degus). Ethology 111: 593-608. (PDF)

Jaksic, F. (2001): Spatiotemporal variation patterns of plants and animals in San Carlos de Apoquindo, central Chile. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 74(2): 477-502. doi:10.4067/S0716-078X2001000200021. (HTML)

Zunino, Saiz & Yates (1992): Uso del espacio, densidad de Octodon degus y oferta de recursos en Ocoa, Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 65: 343-355. (PDF)

You are welcome.

Just an additional note:
In Aucó there is also the Chinchilla Reserve and the "Save the last Chinchillas" project from the american scientist Amy Deane. Chinchillas are rare and it isn't likely to film then, even to observe them is pretty hard and they are nocturnal (that means a camera with infrared light is needed).
Thus chinchillas itselves probably aren't interesting enough, but the Chinchilla Reserve, its environment (flora and fauna), the visitors centre might be word to mention or Deanes chinchilla project: she engages for reforestagion, has a own seedling nursery, collect the seeds from native shrubs and let them grow to little robust plants, she can "release" them in wild:

www.wildchinchillas.org/

This might be also interesting, but keep in mind the distances, in Santiago the different degu sites are close together, but Aucó as well as Fray Jorge are some 100 km away from Santiago, the heart of Chile and civilisation. Both is in the north, and thus there isn't much infrastructure and density of population and towns is low (in contrast the southern part - south of Santiago - is more populated and the climate is more like in Europe). That might be also an advantage, because there is more nature, but I think also it makes it more complicated to achieve quick results (time/money is often limited) and on the other hand, near Santiago I assume there is a more diverse structure of different niches making it easier to switch between the different sites and to discover new ones.

Just want to throw in my support as well!! This is a great idea!! I look forward to hearing about it as you move a long with it!

Degu documentary would be cool always wondered why there wasn't one as well. I wanted to tell national geographic to make one

This sounds fantastic!