Chipmunks are small, active rodents found across North America. They are easily recognized by their distinctive reddish-brown fur, accented by prominent black and white stripes along their backs and faces. These energetic creatures are a familiar sight in woodlands, forests, and suburban environments.
Dietary Favorites
Chipmunks are omnivores, consuming a variety of plant and animal matter. Their diet includes seeds, nuts, berries, fruits, buds, and fungi, with favorites like acorns and sunflower seeds. They also eat grass, shoots, insects, worms, snails, small frogs, and even bird eggs.
These agile foragers spend much time on the ground gathering food, though they readily climb trees to access nuts. Chipmunks possess expandable cheek pouches, which they utilize to transport substantial quantities of collected food back to their underground burrows for storage. A single chipmunk can fit a remarkable number of items in these pouches, such as up to 72 sunflower seeds or seven acorns at once.
Caching food is a crucial behavior, especially as they prepare for winter. Unlike some animals, chipmunks do not accumulate significant body fat to sustain them through colder months. Instead, they rely on these stored provisions, waking periodically during winter to feed from their caches. They employ two main caching strategies: storing food in a centralized larder within their burrow or distributing it across multiple smaller scatter hoards.
Ideal Living Spaces
Chipmunks prefer environments with ample ground cover, such as logs, tree stumps, dense shrubs, and rocky outcrops. Their habitats include deciduous forests, woodlands, brushland, and forest edges. They are also adaptable, often found in suburban yards and urban parks.
Their primary shelter is an intricate burrow system they excavate themselves. These complex burrows feature multiple entrances, interconnected tunnels, and various chambers. Burrow entrances are small, between one and three inches in diameter, and are well-concealed, lacking visible mounds of excavated dirt. This is because chipmunks transport soil away in their cheek pouches to maintain the hidden nature of their homes.
Underground, these burrows provide protection from predators and harsh weather. They typically include nesting chambers, food storage rooms, and sometimes narrow drainage tunnels. These extensive systems can stretch up to 30 feet in length and reach depths of three feet. Chipmunks are solitary animals, actively defending the area around their burrow entrance from other chipmunks.
Typical Daily Activities
Chipmunks are diurnal, active during daylight hours, especially in the early morning and late afternoon. They dedicate most waking hours to foraging for food and transporting it to their burrows for storage.
While primarily ground-dwelling, chipmunks are proficient climbers. They scamper up trees in search of food or to escape threats. Chipmunks communicate through distinct vocalizations, including chirping, trills, and chattering sounds.
These vocalizations alert others to danger. For instance, a sharp “chip” sound indicates a ground-based predator, while a lower-pitched “chuck” signals an aerial threat. Chipmunks also exhibit territorial behaviors, defending their burrow entrances and communicating boundaries through scent marks. Although they enter a state of torpor during winter, they are not true hibernators, as they wake frequently to access their stored food.