Among them were the chipmunks that ran in and out of the shandry (garage), woodpile and the screen on the basement window. Their omnivorous diet consists of seeds, bulbs, fruits, nuts, insects, meat and eggs.Ī couple of weeks ago I wrote about the "unofficial" pets my brother Stephen and I adopted. Vocalizations include a low-pitched "chuck, chuck, chuck," which often is heard before the chipmunk is seen. They may live three years in the wild, but do much better in captivity where they may live to be eight. Adults are solitary, except for the mother with young.Ĭhipmunks maintain a home range usually less than 100 yards across and are territorial in nature. In just a month, the youngsters will be ready to leave the nest. Altricial at birth, the babies are naked, blind and helpless. Mating occurs in April and again in July or August, where three to five young are born after about 30 days of gestation. Always alert to predators, the burrows also contain several concealed entrances. The pantry may hold up to a half-bushel of nuts and other food, all carried to the cache in the chipmunk's outsized cheek pouches. They dig long (up to 12 feet), shallow, extensive burrows that may include a storage chamber, sleeping room, dump, latrine and nesting chamber. The body stripes on their back tend to end at their reddish rump. They clearly are ground dwelling, but may also climb into shrubs and onto lower tree branches.
This species has 22 teeth.Įastern chipmunks, the ones we are most familiar with in our part of the state, are kind of nervous Nellies as they scamper about the woodlands. Least chipmunks prefer more open country than the eastern. Color varies from dull yellow to gray brown with stripes extending to the base of the tail. The least is a variable western species and because there are more subspecies of this chipmunk, it is the more widely distributed of the two. As the name implies, the least chipmunk is smaller than the eastern. In Minnesota, we have two species: the eastern chipmunk, which lives throughout most of our state, and a subspecies of the least chipmunk known as the Midwestern, which frequents the northeastern part. Nearly all terrestrial squirrels (woodchucks, marmots, prairie dogs, chipmunks and ground, antelope and mantle squirrels) hibernate.Ĭhipmunks, of which there are about 65 species or subspecies in America, have striped backs and cheeks. All have bushy or at least furry tails and fairly rounded heads. This is not true hibernation, although the heart rate decreases and the animal is sluggish.Ĭhipmunks are members of the large and diverse squirrel family, which includes ground as well as tree species. Some mammals, such as bears, badgers, skunks, raccoons and opossums, enter into a state of prolonged sleep with little or no decrease in body temperature. While the process often coincides with the coming of cold weather or lack of food, there may be other factors that contribute. The physiological stimulus triggering hibernation is not fully understood. During arousal, the hibernator both shivers violently and employs non-shivering thermogenesis to produce heat. If a burrow or den is disturbed during the winter, exposing a hibernating animal, the creature will awaken if the temperature drops dangerously low. Although I don't have the exact numbers for chipmunks, I would assume they are similar. The respiratory rate for a ground squirrel, for example, drops dramatically from a normal rate of 200 beats per minute to four or five per minute and the heart rate nosedives from 150 to five beats per minute. Metabolism decreases to a fraction of normal.
#Chipmunks hibernate in winter series#
After a series of "test drops," during which the body temperature decreases a few degrees and then returns to normal, the animal cools to within a degree or so of the ambient temperature. As the temperature drops, these small mammals head to their dens to wile away the winter.Ĭhipmunks, along with bats, ground squirrels, jumping mice and woodchucks, are true hibernators that gradually enter into a state of hibernation. In addition, they store morsels in caches for emergency rations. Although spunky and sassy most of the time, this little rodent really ratchets down to hibernate during the cold months of the year.Īs autumnal days grow shorter and colder, chipmunks build up body fat by gorging themselves with the last easily available tidbits of food. While we don't have snow as we head into mid-December, little creatures of the woods still are snuggled safely in their winter dens awaiting the heavy insulating blanket of snow.
0 kommentar(er)
