Top 10 Incredible Chipmunk Facts
1 : Chipmunks belong to the Sciuridae family, the family of squirrels. They’re not the same as the tree-dwelling squirrels, though. Instead, they belong to the same tribe as ground squirrels, like the prairie dog.
2 : Like many other ground squirrels, chipmunks live in burrows. They use them for multiple purposes, including storing food for winter weather and sleeping.
3 : they do not go into hibernation as we know it. Instead, when bad weather hits, they go into a state of torpor. Torpor is similar to hibernation, but it’s not long-lasting, and it may or may not be voluntary.
4 : They are hunted by snakes that follow them into their burrows, hawks that swoop down on them from the sky, domestic cats and dogs playing in their yards, and even coyotes and weasels in some parts of their distribution!
5 : Chipmunks create food caches that help them survive winter when food is less plentiful. Fortunately, they have cheek pouches that stretch to become about three times the size of the animal’s head.
6 : Some ground squirrels live together in large communities. For example, prairie dogs live in large communities called towns that can span a hundred acres.
7 : The most prominent way that chipmunks help one another is by issuing calls in the presence of a predator. When they spot a predator, they’ll let out different warning calls.
8 : That is the Siberian chipmunk, and it lives in Russia and parts of Asia. Aside from that, North America is inundated with chipmunk species, possessing 24 of the 25.
9 : The first is that the word comes from “chetamnon”, a word from the Chippewa nation. Another potential explanation for their name is that it came from the Odawa (Ottawa) word “jidmoonh.”
10 : The patterns of black and brown on their bodies, along with the various stripes, can help them camouflage against tree bark and in other woodland areas.