Chipmunk

Lively and speedy critters, chipmunks are small members of the squirrel family. They have pudgy cheeks, large, glossy eyes, stripes, and bushy tails. Of the 25 species of chipmunks, all but one is found in North America. Chipmunks are seen all over from forests to deserts. Some dig burrows to live in, complete with tunnels and chambers, while others make their homes in nests, bushes, or logs.

Chipmunks can be gray to reddish-brown with dark and light stripes on the sides of their face and across their back and tail. They range in size from 7 to 11 inches and weigh less than a 1/2 a pound.

Chipmunks generally gather food on the ground in areas with underbrush, rocks, and logs, where they can hide from predators like hawks, foxes, coyotes, weasels, and snakes. They feed on insects, nuts, berries, seeds, fruit, and grain which they stuff into their generous cheek pouches and carry to their burrow or nest to store. Chipmunks hibernate, but instead of storing fat, throughout the winter they eat from their hidden supply of nuts and seeds.

Their shrill, repeated, birdlike chirp is usually made upon sensing a threat but is also thought to be used as a mating call by females. Chipmunks are solitary creatures and normally ignore one another except during the spring, when mating takes place. After a 30-day gestation, a litter of two to eight is born. The young stay with their parents for two months before they begin to gather their own provisions for the winter ahead.

Color Page

To print this, please click on the following link(s) which will open a new window. Then select File -> Print from the toolbar. You may be required to set your printer preferences to landscape in order to have the full image.