Phillip Alber, age 11, of Lansing, Mic ., for is question:

Do guinea pigs come from Guinea?

This cuddly fellow is not a pig nor is he a native of Guinea. He is a bunny type animal of Peru and the high Andes Mountains. Sometime in the 16th century he was taken to Europe and this may have been when the mixup occurred in his name. Those were days of great sailing and trading ships. There was a lot of traffic between Europe, the New World and the rich Guinea coast of Africa.

Ships between the New World and the Old would often put in to African ports to load and reload. The first Guinea pigs to arrive in the Old World must have done so on one of the famous Guinea trading ships. The first part of their long journey was forgotten and everyone thought that the furry little bunnies had come from Africa and the little visitors never bothered to correct this misinformation about themselves.