Eastern Chipmunk
Scientific Name: Tamias striatus
The eastern chipmunk is a small, ground-dwelling rodent native to eastern North America. It is a member of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) and is easily recognized by its distinctive stripes and energetic behavior. Their fur is reddish brown in color with 5 distinct black stripes running down their sides and back. They also have dark stripes on their cheeks and near their eyes.
They have prominent, dark eyes, rounded ears, and cheek pouches that they use to carry food. Their underbelly is white, and they have white around their eyes as well. Their tail is relatively flat, and usually darker in color than their body. They have small round ears and small paws with 4 toes in the front, and 5 toes in the back.
Chipmunks go into periods of torpor (decreased activity similar to hibernation) in the winter, and are a welcome sign of spring when they emerge!
Adult size: 10 to 10.5 in
Weight: 66 to 115 grams
Life span: 2 to 8 years
Maturity: 1 year
Litter size: 2 to 8
Fun Fact
Eastern chipmunks have cheek pouches that can stretch to three times the size of their head! They use these pouches to gather large nuts.
Diet
Eastern chipmunks diet consists mostly of seeds, nuts, and fruits. They are opportunistically omnivorous and will supplement their diet with insects, worms, slugs, bird eggs, and mushrooms. They characteristically transport their food in their large cheek pouches. They scatter hoard – leaving caches of food throughout their territory. They increase their foraging rates in the autumn to store up enough food to overwinter. During milder winter weather they will continue to forage above ground.
Habitat
Eastern chipmunks inhabit a wide variety of wooded habitats. They are ground dwelling animals and prefer deciduous forests, using the cover it provides such as stumps, logs, and rocky outcrops. Their preferred habitat is mature maple-beech forests but will inhabit coniferous forests as well.
They can also be found in a variety of urban, suburban, and agricultural environments. Chipmunks are excellent burrowers, creating complex tunnel systems with chambers for sleeping, storing food, and nesting.
Behavior
Eastern chipmunks are diurnal, solitary, and territorial. Their behavior includes gathering and storing food, such as nuts, seeds, berries, and insects, particularly in the fall when they build up caches for winter. They create burrows underground, and sometimes under buildings. They have multiple “rooms” in their burrows, for nesting and food storage.
They spend their winters underground and enter periods of torpor (decreased metabolic activity). Eastern chipmunks are incredibly vocal, producing a variety of chips, trills, and calls to alert others of predators or to defend their territories. They also use body language and scent marking for communication.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Eastern chipmunks are polygamous, with the females mating with multiples mails during their brief estrus period. Males typically travel outside their home ranges to find a mate. A female can bear two litters per year, first between April and June, and again between August and October. Gestation lasts for approximately 35 days.
Young are altricial; born hairless and blind. The young become weaned 40 days after birth, and the mother will disperse to a new burrow, leaving the young in the natal burrow until they disperse.
Males disperse much further than females, and often the female offspring will have home ranges overlapping with their mother and female siblings.
Population Status
Eastern chipmunks are listed as of “least concern” on the IUCN Red List and have no special status. This means it is considered to have a stable and abundant population with no major threats across most of its range.
Viewing
Eastern chipmunks are abundant and can be found almost anywhere in New York, though they prefer deciduous forests with maple and beech trees. Just check your backyard, you might spot one of these little critters!
Range
Eastern chipmunks are distributed throughout the Eastern United States and Southeastern Canada. They have also been introduced to Newfoundland. They are found across New York State and will occur at elevations up to 4,000 feet in the Adirondack Park.
