Body temperature may drop from 94 degrees F to whatever the temperature of the burrow is-as cold as 40 degrees F.Ī new study has found that as winter temperature heats up because of global warming, chipmunks in warmer areas become less likely to hibernate in the coldest months. Their heart rate declines from about 350 beats per minute to perhaps 4. When chipmunks are in the deep sleep phase of hibernation, they may be very difficult to arouse. They retreat to their burrows but wake every few days, raise their body temperatures to normal, feed on stored food rather than fat reserves, and urinate and defecate. Photo by National Wildlife Contest entrant Heather Moore.Ĭhipmunks hibernate in winter, but they don’t sleep all the way through the season. Wild chipmunks, on average, live two to three years captive specimens have lasted eight.Ī chipmunk makes use of a fallen tree. Alvin and the Chipmunks are now more than 50 years old.Some species keep food in their burrows, which can be more than 10 feet in length. In autumn, chipmunks gather seeds and other foods for storage as a supply of winter food.Woodchucks, she says, pay less attention to chipmunk alarms, presumably because, at up to 12 pounds, they are so much bigger and need not fear as many predators as chipmunks do. She has found that chipmunks respond to the high-pitched alarm whistles of their relative the woodchuck, sometimes seeking cover after a woodchuck warning. Chipmunks also listen in on the alarm calls of other species, says Lisa Aschemeier, a biologist at Ohio’s Northwest State Community College. Ground-nesting veeries and ovenbirds, Schmidt recently discovered, avoid setting up house in areas where they hear chipmunk squeaks, thus reducing the risk that the squirrels will eat the birds’ eggs and young. Hear how chipmunks sound.Īn eastern chipmunk in Masschusetts, photographed by Vladimir Mikhaylov, an NWF photo contest entrant, has packed its mouth with leaves for use in lining its nest. Chipmunks will even make calls in a chorus composed of several of the little rodents-shades of Alvin. Kenneth Schmidt, a biologist at Texas Tech University who studies eastern chipmunks, recognizes three chipmunk calls, “the chip, the deeper chuck, and the startle call.” The last is an alarm that warns of impending danger. They might not sing like Alvin and the boys, but wild chipmunks do vocalize.They probably don’t hunt for eggs and hatchlings, just eat them when they find them. Along with seeds and fungi they scarf grain, fruit, nuts, insects, worms, bird eggs and even nestling birds and baby mice. Chipmunks aren’t particularly choosey about what they eat.Chipmunks also spread the seeds of trees and other plants. They eat various types of seeds as well as fungus, helping to spread the mycorrhizal fungi that live around tree roots and are critical to tree survival.Chipmunks prefer forested areas and can climb trees, shrubs and…birdfeeders.Young are on their own within eight weeks. ![]()
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