Chipmunks are fun to watch. They charm campers and hikers by their small size, their boldness in search of food, and their constant busyness. They are not hard to approach or photograph. An encounter with a chipmunk often provides a child with a captivating first experience of a wild mammal in its natural setting. Within ten minutes of our arrival at the cottage, we have chipmunks begging for peanuts and they readily snatch them from our hands. If you are too slow to respond, the little devils will run up your legs and boldly plant themselves on the table waiting for the nuts that they will store in their burrows for the coming winter.

Surprisingly, in animals so quick to befriend curious children and delight all ages, chipmunks are solitary animals. Each chipmunk has its own burrow and ignores its fellows except when conflicts arise or during mating or when females care for their young.

Chipmunks Tamias are easily recognized by the light and dark stripes on the back and head. They can be confused with some of the striped ground squirrels, but chipmunks are smaller, and have facial markings and five dark stripes on their backs, including a distinct, central line that extends forward onto the head. Ground squirrels do not have markings on the head.

The eastern chipmunk is a colourful and attractive rodent with bright russet on its hips, rump, and tail; black, grey, and white stripes on its back; brown, grey, and buff on its head; white underparts; and brown feet.

Chipmunks are quite vocal. People walking in the woods do not always realize that they are hearing chipmunks, for some of the cries that chipmunks make are like bird chirps. 

Biologists have not yet determined the meaning of all the chipmunk’s many calls. For example, when a chipmunk is startled, it runs quickly along the ground giving a rapid series of loud chips and squeaks. Perhaps this sudden burst of noise startles predators, helping the chipmunk to escape. Also, chipmunks frequently call with a high-pitched chip or chuck repeated over and over at intervals of one or two seconds. This scolding noise is often made by a chipmunk watching an intruder from a safe vantage point. Some scientists think that it may also be the mating call of the female chipmunk.

A chipmunk spends much of its day collecting and storing seeds, which are its most important source of food. Although most species of chipmunks usually forage on the ground, they all easily climb trees and shrubs to harvest nuts and fruit.

When preparing food for storage, the chipmunk holds fruit and seeds in its dexterous front paws, and with specialized incisors, or sharp cutting teeth, which are especially long and directed forward, it removes seeds from pods. Then it uses its tongue to shift the seeds backwards and stuff them between its teeth and the extensible skin in the cheek area, where they are held while the animal collects more food. The capacity of these cheek pouches increases with maturity. When the cheek pouches become full, the chipmunk deposits the seeds in its nest or buries them in shallow holes that it digs in the ground and then covers with earth, leaves, and other litter.

In spring, chipmunks diligently search the ground for any seeds that remain from the previous summer. As these are usually scarce, the small rodents eat young leaves and shoots until new fruit and seeds become available. Throughout the spring, summer, and autumn, the chipmunk’s diet is supplemented with insects, earthworms, flowers, berries, cherry and plum pits, mushrooms, and occasionally eggs or flesh of dead animals. Rare instances of chipmunks preying on birds or small mammals have been observed.

In Canada, in most years, chipmunks have only one breeding season and one litter, but in favourable years a small percentage of adult eastern chipmunks produces a second litter in the fall. In the southern United States, the production of two litters per year by both eastern and western chipmunks is not uncommon.

for more information on the Eastern Chipmunk go to

http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=86