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Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)

Eastern Chipmunk | Boundary Waters Region | Photo Credit: Alissa Sinclair | |View Enlarged Image

Cheeky Little Rodents

Eastern Chipmunks are among the most persistent foragers in the wild, and can often be spotted rushing to their burrows with their cheeks full of seed. According to the National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mammals, Eastern Chipmunks can store up to a bushel of acorns and other seeds in a single day. Besides nuts, Chipmunks have an omnivorous diet of seeds, small slugs, and insect larva.  Chipmunks will eat Dragonfly and Dobsonfly larva as they crawl up onto the shore to pupate. These insects have especially nasty pincers adapted to catching tadpoles and small fish -- they can even deliver nasty bites to us humans! Nevertheless, Eastern Chipmunks seem to cherish them, crackling through their exoskeletons like lobster.

Though Chipmunks face many predators, including the Red Fox and domestic Cat, snakes are among most deadly. Many of our native species, such as the common garter snake, are the perfect size to infiltrate their underground burrows. Chipmunks also face the wrath of many human homeowners, who tire of them digging tulip bulbs out of the garden or burrowing under the front porch. Most of the weapons in the homeowner's arsenal are problematic. Though poison, for instance, may take out one Chipmunk, it may also kill the snake that eats it, lowering the number of predators in the area, and encouraging more Chipmunks.

Chipmunks are not one of the most prolific rodents. They typically have one to two litters per year, with an average of six young per litter. They can live up to eight years in the wild, according to Wellesly College, but with all the predators and other natural dangers faced by the species, few live to see the age of three.

Chipmunk burrows range from single tunnels cut through rotten logs to elaborate underground networks that can accommodate multiple nests and food stores large enough to last six months or more! The entrance to chipmunk holes tend to be very clean and neat. According to Paul Rezendes' Tracking and the Art of Seeing, as Chipmunk build their holes they store the debris in their cheek pouches, later carrying it out to scatter over the grass.

Some interesting Chipmunk facts:

• Chipmunks have an average life span of around three years in the wild.
• Seen a lot of Chipmunks or Squirrels lately? The deciduous trees in your area may have produced a bumper crop lately. If there were bumper crops every year, the species that depend on them would overpopulate and eradicate them, preventing new growth and eventually wiping out animals and food souce alike. This is why most native trees have adapted to crop cycles that keep the species they support in check.
• Chipmunks commonly build burrows in solid, secure locations, such as wood or brush piles, in brick retaining walls, or even under decks, patios, or garages.
• We all know that the chipmunks store nuts and seeds to take back to their burrow in their expanding cheeks. So how much can they store? According to Wellesley College's Web of Species, the record tips off at around seventy sunflower seeds!
• Eastern Chipmunks do hibernate, often through late fall, and particularly during the harsher months of winter, though they will surface to gather food when temperatures are mild.
• Chipmunks squeaks or sometimes "chucks" when establishing their territory. This call (see below) sounds almost like the call of a bird.

Multimedia:

Eastern Chipmunk on Cherry Tree | Stillwater, MN	Chipmunk Territoreal "Chuck" | (973 KB WAV Audio) | Stillwater, MN	Chipmunk trail marker; burrow entrance| Stillwater, MN

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	National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mammals
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