Home » Plants & Animals » Wildscaping » Chip-Chip-Chipmunks

Chip-Chip-Chipmunks

© Mel. White

Could you fall in love with a pair of bright, beady eyes and toffee colored racing stripes? With a mischevous, perky, baseball-sized creature that adores sunflower seeds and enjoys prying into the hidden areas around your house? Not surprisingly, many folks find that one of the most entertaining wild animals to have in the back yard is the little chipmunk; mischief-maker of the continental United States.

Many folks love them; a few hate them. Most simply find them entertaining -- until too many chipmunks move in and start gnawing and prying like their cousins, the squirrels.

Chipmunks are actually a type of ground squirrel, differing from their cousins... well... in lots of ways. Chimpunks have short tails and "racing stripes"-- five broad stripes that zip from the tops of their heads down their bodies (ground squirrels also have stripes -- but only on their bodies.)

Chipmunks are fairly common in all forests and prairies throughout North America as well as in Asia and Russia. You can usually find them near a rockpile or old log, hunting for food or simply sunning themselves. They're omnivores and will feed on seeds, nuts, fruits and insects and their larvae. But unlike marauding squirrels, chipmunks usually pose few problems at bird feeders, making them more welcome backyard visitors than squirrels.

You can prevent chipmunks from entering these areas by covering possible entryways with hardware cloth. Live traps are available at hardware or feed stores to catch chipmunks and release them at a more appropriate site. southeastern Canada. They thrive in regions of deciduous forest and shrubs. They are frequently seen around fallen logs, near large rocks or around out buildings.

The Western chipmunk, of which there are seventeen species, inhabits North America from the Yukon south to Sonora in Mexico. They have also spread across Asia from northern Russia, through Siberia, and into northern China and Japan. Sixteen of the species are found in North America, and only one species in Asia.

The western chipmunk prefers an open range, and can be found in pastures, prairies, and in other opened fields. You can also find the western chipmunk on the rocky cliffs of some mountain ranges.

Unfortunately for the little chippie, he's a very tasty critter. He's preyed upon by every carnivore in his habitat, from owls and hawks through weasels... and even the huge grizzly bear. What saves the chipmunk from extinction is that they breed twice a year and have litters of 4-7 young. Even so, life is hard for a chipmunk. While they can live 10 years and more in captivity, life expectancy in the wild is only 1.5 years.

The copyright of the article Chip-Chip-Chipmunks in Wildscaping is owned by . Permission to republish Chip-Chip-Chipmunks in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.