Chipmunk ( Clifford Chipmunk )
Chipmunk
is the common name for any small
squirrel-like
rodent species of the genus Tamias in the family
Sciuridae. About 23 species fall under this title, with one species in
northeastern
Asia, one in the eastern portions of Canada and the US, and all the rest
native to the western part of
North America.
The name was originally spelled "chitmunk,"
and comes from the
Ojibwe word ajidamoo, meaning "red squirrel." They are also called
striped squirrel or ground squirrel; however, the name "ground squirrel" is more
usually kept for the genus
Spermophilus, though Tamias and Spermophilus are only two
of the 13
genera of ground-living
sciurids.
Though they are commonly depicted
with their paws up to the mouth, eating peanuts, or more famously their cheeks
bulging out on either side, chipmunks eat a much more diverse range of foods
than just nuts. Their
omnivorous diet consists of grain, nuts, birds' eggs, fungi, and insects.
Come autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile these goods in their
burrows, for
winter. Other species make multiple small caches of food. These two kinds of
behavior are called
larder hoarding and
scatter hoarding. Larder hoarders usually live in their nests until
spring.
These small squirrels fulfill
several important functions in
forest
ecosystems. Their activities with regards to harvesting and hoarding tree
seeds play a crucial role in
seedling establishment. They also consume many different kinds of
fungi, including those involved in symbiotic mycorrhizal associations with
trees, and are an important vector for dispersal of the spores of subterranean
sporocarps (truffles) which have co-evolved with these and other
mycophagous mammals and thus lost the ability to disperse their spores
through the air.
Chipmunks play an important role
as prey for various predatory mammals and birds, but are also opportunistic
predators themselves, particularly with regard to bird eggs and
nestlings. In
Oregon,
Mountain Bluebirds (Siala currucoides) have been observed
energetically mobbing chipmunks that they see near their nest trees.
Chipmunks construct expansive
burrows which can be more than 3.5 m in length with several well-concealed
entrances. The sleeping quarters are kept extremely clean as shells and feces
are stored in refuse tunnels.
If unmolested
they often become bold enough to accept food from the hands of humans. The
temptation to pick up or pet any wild animal should be strictly avoided. While
rabies is exceptionally rare, if non-existent, in rodents, chipmunk bites can
transmit virulent and dangerous bacterial infections.
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