Erica's Chipmunk

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Index By Erica

Description Habitat Range Food Life Cycle
Survival Facts Human Impact References Links

 

 

The Western Chipmunk
Kingdom  Anomalia
Phylum  Chordata
Class  Mammalia
Order Rodentia
Family Sciuridae
Genus  Tamias
Species  ruficaudus

 

 

 

Description
Chipmunks are small, short, and have a stubby tail. They have caramel colored fur.  They have small pink noses.  They have small glossy black eyes.

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Habitat
Most western chipmunks construct tunnels and chambers in the ground. They have entrances that are well hidden under rocks and tangled bushes. There are many chambers that the chipmunks use.   One of the chambers will have leaves and grasses gathered to  build a nest.  In addition there are two other chambers used for food storage and one last chamber that is used for the coldest part of the winter. 

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Range
 They can be found in the western part of the United States and in the western part of Canada.

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Food
The chipmunks diet is of insects ,earthworms cherries, plumbs pits, mushrooms , hickory nuts ,acorns ,black walnuts ,hazel nuts , pansy leaves  , beechnuts , linden seeds and other veggies. When preparing food for the winter they take the food in their front paws and with their long claws they break open the seed or nut , then deposits them in their food chambers. Then in the spring when the food is gone they start collecting all over again. 

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Life Cycle
Mating takes place in the spring . Male chipmunks are the first to emerge in the spring . Females emerge one or two weeks later. Breeding takes place near a females burrow. Several males may compete for a female . 

Chipmunks are born blind and weigh about 3 grams . They don't get fur until the 10th day, the ears are closed in till the 28th day the eyes don't  open until the 31st to the 33rd day. They start to leave the chamber they were born from and wander around outside at about 4-7 weeks.

The young grow rapidly during the summer and reach adult size in late September. The life span in the wild is two to three years but in captivity longer.

The animals that like to eat chipmunks are foxes, big birds like owls, cats and snakes. 

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 Survival

For their survival chipmunks need water, food, forested areas with lots of trees, and burrows to hide from predators.

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Facts
1 : Rare that someone  has seen  a chipmunk preying on a mammal like a mouse , a small snake and a small birds . 

2 : The chipmunk hibernates in the winter in their burrow.

3 : They dig the tunnels and the burrows  by themselves.

 

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Human Impact
One of the human impacts is cats; when people get cats they eat chipmunks which can have a negative effect on the population.

Another thing that can impact chipmunks are cars, traffic is responsible for chipmunks being run over, more roads are built in their habitat more chances for chipmunks to die.

 

links : Goggle /images/chipmunks .com ,Pixelwit.com image / wallpaper  South Burlington library/ Audubon book of chipmunks  encyclopedia / letter C/ chipmunks 

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For comments or questions contact Bill Wight at  billw@sbschools.net