SCOTT SHALAWAY There's nothing quite like chipmunks
Whenever I see a chipmunk, I smile. Whether it's scurrying across the road with tail held high or chattering from a stump at the edge of the woods, chipmunks display an admirable and feisty independence.
"Cuk, cuk, cuk, cuk, cuk, ... " It's one of the defining sounds of autumn. It can continue for minutes without a break. Sometimes it sounds close by and from all directions. Look closer, on a rock or stump, and you'll find the singer. Between mad forays for food, chipmunks pause to announce their presence, irritation or alarm.
Listen more closely, and you may hear three other phrases in the chipmunk's vocabulary -- a single high-pitched chip, a rapid series of chips, and a chip followed by a trill. At times these sounds warn other chipmunks: "Keep out! This food patch is mine." Often, however, they are warning calls uttered when a predator gets too close.
Keeping busy
Fall's a hectic time for chipmunks. These small, striped ground squirrels spend most of the daylight hours stuffing cheek pouches full of seeds and nuts. They seem absolutely driven by a compulsion to collect and hoard food. It would be easy to assume they somehow fear starvation, but food hoarders have insurance when natural foods get scarce. They simply rely on their supplies.
The best time to observe them is during fall's foraging frenzy.
Ever alert, chipmunks chatter endlessly, interrupting the still of the forest with their distinctive calls. Nervously flicking tails punctuate their remarks.
Chipmunks live in forest borders and make themselves at home in both town and country back yards. Here they select stone walls, brush heaps, fallen logs and old stumps as sites for their tunnel systems.
The main burrow entrance opens under a concealing rock, log or stump. Other entrances to the burrow are plugged and rarely used after the tunnel system is complete. The main tunnel plunges almost straight down for about a foot before it turns and descends gradually another 20 or 30 feet.
Personal warehouse
Somewhere in the system they excavate an enlarged chamber. This room doubles as a warehouse for food and as a nest below the frost line. The bottom of the chamber is filled with as much as a half bushel of seeds and nuts. Nesting material consisting of dried leaves or grass rests on top of the food.
Adults defend a 50-foot radius around the burrow. During the fall they venture beyond this area in search of food for winter.
Chipmunks search single-mindedly for food in the fall. They dash back and forth from their burrows to the nearest supply of acorns, hickory nuts, beechnuts and walnuts. If there's a corn crib or bird feeder nearby, they help themselves. When severe winter weather arrives, they stay in the den and enjoy the fruits of the fall frenzy.
During periods of extreme and extended cold, chipmunks become dormant, sleeping for days or weeks, waking occasionally to eat. But they are not true hibernators.
Giving birth
After a gestation period of 31 days, female chipmunks give birth to the year's first litter in April or early May. A second litter usually follows in August.
Four or five pups are typical, and they are born naked, blind and tiny (about one-tenth of an ounce). Five weeks later, young chipmunks venture above ground.
Young chippies are favorite prey of weasels, snakes, hawks and foxes, but if they survive the first year, chipmunks can live for six or seven years. It is this rapid reproductive rate that can yield chipmunk populations as high as 30 per acre.
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