![]() A chipmunk can transport large amounts of food: one observer noted 31 corn kernels, another 32 beechnuts, and a third 70 sunflower seeds in the cheek pouches. Chipmunks eat food on the spot (evidenced by piles of shelled seeds or nut fragments) or carry it away for hoarding. ![]() Birds’ eggs, insects, snails, earthworms, millipedes, salamanders, small snakes, frogs and young mice and birds supplement their vegetable diet. They also eat mushrooms, berries, corn, and the flesh and seeds of apples, peaches, pears and garden vegetables. They feed on nuts, (acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts) and seeds of woody and herbaceous plants including cherry, box elder, maples, shadbush, dogwood, viburnum, ragweed, wintergreen and wild geranium. It sounds a loud, repetitive “chip” similar to a robin’s note a more rapid chipping (three or four chips per second, perhaps to warn other chipmunks away from its individual territory) and a single, sharp alarm whistle.Ĭhipmunks are omnivorous. When eating they often perch on stumps, rocks or logs, to survey their surroundings. Their senses of sight and hearing are keen. Although largely ground-dwelling, they sometimes climb trees, descending head first in squirrel-like leaps. They run with their bushy tails held straight up. Albino and melanistic individuals occur.Ĭhipmunks are graceful and spry, quick to dart for their underground burrows when startled. Winter pelage is slightly paler than summer. Adults molt in late spring or early summer and again in late fall or early winter. On the sides of the face two buffy stripes outline the eye, and a black stripe runs through it. The narrowest stripe centers on the backbone, while on each side from shoulder to rump two more dark stripes sandwich a cream-colored band. The most prominent field marks are five dark brown to blackish stripes on the back and sides. Cheeks and sides of the body are grayish-tan to tawny brown, and the underparts are whitish. The short, dense body fur is colored alike for both sexes: reddish-brown sprinkled with black and white hairs, brightest on the rump and flanks. A chipmunk has internal cheek pouches for carrying food or excavated dirt. The front incisor teeth are broad and chisel-shaped like those of other rodents. Each hind foot has five clawed toes, and each forefoot has four clawed toes and a fifth, thumb-like, digit with a soft, rounded nail. A chipmunk’s head is blunt with rounded, erect ears. The species ranges from Quebec south to northern Florida and Louisiana, and from the eastern seaboard west to Oklahoma, Kansas, the Dakotas and Saskatchewan.Īdult chipmunks are 8 to 10 inches long (including a 3- to 4-inch tail) and weigh 2½ to 4 ounces. The chipmunk’s taxonomic name is Tamias striatus (tamias means collector and keeper of provisions, and striatus refers to the animal’s prominent body stripes). A member of the squirrel family, Sciuridae, the chipmunk, is closely related to red, gray, fox and flying squirrels and, surprisingly, the woodchuck. Colloquial names include grinny, chippie, hackle and rock squirrel. The eastern chipmunk is a small, agile rodent found throughout Pennsylvania.
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