Habitat and Diet: The eastern chipmunk is found in deciduous forests, shrub habitat, forest edges, and suburban and urban areas where there is abundant cover to protect it from predators. Chipmunks are omnivores they feed on both plants and animals. Their diet includes seeds, nuts, berries, fruits, flowers, mushrooms, insects, worms, snails, frogs, bird eggs, and small birds. Males and females come together only to mate. Females raise their young alone.
After a gestation period of 31 days, a litter of 2 to 6 young is born some litters may be as large as 9 young. Hairless, blind, and helpless, newborn chipmunks are about the size of a bumblebee. The young remain underground in the burrow for about 6 weeks.
After approximately 8 to 10 weeks, they are fully independent and leave the female. Chipmunks reach sexual maturity in about 1 year. Interesting Facts: Chipmunks are an important food source for a number of predators including hawks, snakes, weasels, foxes, bobcats, raccoons, rats, owls, and coyotes. House cats also prey on chipmunks. Depending on species, chipmunks can be gray to reddish-brown in color with contrasting dark and light stripes on the sides of their face and across their back and tail.
They range in size from the least chipmunk, which, at 7. Chipmunks generally gather food on the ground in areas with underbrush, rocks, and logs, where they can hide from predators like hawks, foxes, coyotes, weasels, and snakes. They feed on insects, nuts, berries, seeds, fruit, and grain which they stuff into their generous cheek pouches and carry to their burrow or nest to store.
Chipmunks hibernate, but instead of storing fat, they periodically dip into their cache of nuts and seeds throughout the winter. Their shrill, repeated, birdlike chirp is usually made upon sensing a threat but is also thought to be used as a mating call by females.
Chipmunks are solitary creatures and normally ignore one another except during the spring, when mating takes place. After a day gestation, a litter of two to eight is born. The young stay with their parents for two months before they begin to gather their own provisions for the winter ahead. For the most part, chipmunks, although susceptible to forest fragmentation, are not currently at-risk. All rights reserved. Common Name: Chipmunks. Home Squirrel Facts!
Chipmunk Facts! Bat Facts! Birding Foxes Privacy Policy. Have you ever wondered what animals eat chipmunks? Predatory Mammals Chipmunks and other rodents are an essential part of the diet of many mammals. Long-tailed weasels Red foxes Ermines Lynxes Bobcats Coyotes Fishers Raccoons Red squirrels I was surprised to see red squirrels on this list but those little guys are known for being feisty!
Two other noteworthy mammalian predators of chipmunks are domesticated cats and dogs. Avian Predators Chipmunks have it rough. Snakes Some species of snakes feed aggressively on chipmunks. Two species that have a voracious appetite for chipmunks and other small rodents include the Black Rat Snake and the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake The relationship between chipmunks and snakes is more complex when compared to the other animals on this list.
Defense Against Predators The importance of chipmunks as a food source to so many animals is one reason that chipmunks do not live very long. The wild creature will most definitelytry to attack and eat the kittens. Nivaria Lancken Pundit. Do chipmunks attract snakes? Attract mice, rats and snakes By theirvery presence, they will attract other rodents such as miceand rats to your property. They also attract snakes because snakes will want to take advantage of the chipmunk holes both to live in and to use as access to yourcrawlspace.
Mahmood El Azzouzi Pundit. How deep is a chipmunk burrow? Margert Chabin Pundit. Do chipmunks bite? Chipmunks bite people if they feel threatened ortrapped. Other signs a person bitten by a chipmunk isexperiencing infection include severe pain around bite sites, red streaks, and swollen lymph nodes.
It is very rare forthe pests to carry rabies, however it is possible. Yunan Gerstendorfer Teacher. Why do chipmunks freeze?
The response to freeze is completely hard-wired,so freezing shows us something about both predator and prey. Evolution has caused the freeze strategy to come intoexistence precisely because it fits in with the way the visualsystems of predators operate. Benat Rodel Supporter. Do hawks kill squirrels? Over the years, I have seen four predators attacking,eating or carrying dead squirrels in their mouths,presumably after they killed them.
Red-tailed hawks are big, diurnal birds of prey that catch and eat field mice, brownrats, Eastern chipmunks, gray squirrels and other critterssmall enough to handle.
Jacobus Janaki Supporter. Can a domestic cat kill a squirrel? Cats would catch and kill most smallanimals rodents etc.
Yep, Baby Squirrel Dinner is a cat feast. Lacey Vintikov Supporter. Will raccoons dig up dead animals?
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