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Least Chipmunk
Yukon Government Image
Page Index:
- Distribution
- Characteristics
- Burrows and Scatterhoards
- Scooting Through the Seasons
- Viewing Opportunities
The Species: Eutamias Minimus
Stripes of black and grey blend with shadows as a least chipmunk crouches by a stump. Its agile forepaws gather seeds and stuff them into its mouth. When cheek pouches bulge, this grey-gold gleaner scampers off to add the new seeds to its hoard. Pint-sized and perky, this smallest of chippers is among the best-loved Yukon mammals.
Distribution
The least chipmunk is the most widespread and northern of New World chipmunks. It lives in many habitats within a broad belt from southeastern Alaska to western Quebec, and in the Rocky Mountains south to Arizona and New Mexico.
Up here, these small members of the squirrel family inhabit only the southern half of the Yukon Territory and occur in a wide variety of dry habitats -- from spruce, pine, and poplar woods to willow or soapberry scrub and dryas plains.
Like least chipmunks elsewhere, Yukon chipmunks prefer to live in open forest and shrubland rather than dense forest. They are often found darting about among protective tangles of logs, rocks, and underbrush. With densities of up to two chippers per hectare, Yukon populations of least chipmunks are lower than in more southern localities, where densities of six to twelve chipmunks per hectare are common.
Characteristics
Only one "chipper" makes its home in the Yukon, so you can bet that any small, striped rodent you see scooting about on the ground or among low branches is a least chipmunk.
Though eye-catching in even light, the chipmunk's stripes are excellent camouflage on sunlit, tree-shadowed ground. To take full advantage of its camouflage coat, the least chipmunk is active only during daylight hours.
Yukon chipmunks are about 20 cm long and weigh about 50 g. Those in our extreme southeast corner are a more yellowish race than the greyer chipmunks inhabiting the southern Yukon and northwestern British Columbia.
Burrows and Scatterhoards
During the warm days of summer, least chipmunks make their homes in simple tunnels or crevices in the ground, or in tree nests and abandoned woodpecker holes. However, when arctic winds bring the promise of snow, the chippers move underground. There, they inhabit twisting burrows up to four metres long and a metre beneath the ground surface. Deep within the burrows are the sleeping chambers that hold chipmunks' winter nests.
In addition to nests, burrows contain storage tunnels and an extra entrance or "work hole". It is through this hole that chipmunks remove excavated dirt by packing it into their cheek pouches and carrying it to the surface. There they scatter it among plants, leaving no telltale pile of dirt to alert predators to their burrows' presence. When construction or yearly renovation comes to a halt, the "work hole" is plugged and chipmunks come and go through entrances hidden by leaves and duff.
As well as security against the icy onslaught of winter, a chipmunk's burrow is its pantry. Throughout the summer and early autumn, it collects thousands of seeds of fruits and grasses, then carries them to the winter home.
Some of these seeds are raided from neighbours' burrows. A dashing thief, the least chipmunk darts into a neighbour's burrow, stuffs its large cheek pouches with seeds, and races away to stash its stolen booty.
Then, as insurance against other thieves robbing its own seed bank, the striped seed-snitcher scatters small hoards in well-hidden spots within sight of its burrow. As it works, the chipper keeps an eye on its burrow hoard and rushes back to scold and chase any thief that approaches. When robbed, a chipmunk retrieves seeds from its scatterhoards to replenish the stolen burrow supplies in readiness for winter.
Scooting Through the Seasons
Gilded by autumn sunshine, a chipmunk perches among willow stems, gathering catkin wool to line its winter nest of shredded grasses and bark. Bits of fur and feathers may also be added to the nest placed conveniently atop a pile of seeds within its sleeping chamber.
Unlike other ground-nesting squirrels, least chipmunks do not put on a thick layer of fat, nor do they sleep the deep sleep of true hibernation. Instead, they plug the entrances to their sleeping chambers in early October, curl up on their haunches, and toss their tails over their heads. Then they drift into a state of torpor, or deep sleep. Although their metabolic rate drops, they arouse periodically to feed on stored food supplies. In mild weather, they may even emerge from their burrows for a scamper in th-e snow.
Lively mating chases announce the onset of breeding soon after chippers emerge from their winter quarters in April or May. Thirty days after mating, an average of five blind and naked young are born in each litter. After only five weeks of rapid growth, the young chippers start to explore the world beyond their mothers' burrows. They are weaned in early August, with less than half of those born surviving to see summer's end. Those that do may live two to five years.
Awake after sunrise and asleep before sunset, the least chipmunk spends most of its day in a hectic search for the seeds of berries, rosehips and many grasses, sedges and weeds. Living up to its scientific name of Eutamias, meaning "a good steward," the chipmunk may store up to 3700 blueberry seeds alone. It also consumes beetles and the eggs, larvae, and caterpillars of a variety of invertebrates, as well as the occasional bird's egg or nestling.
At rest, sun-loving chipmunks sit on rocks or logs and soak up rays. When active, they creep along with level tails or race with tails straight up. Always alert, they're quick to announce the presence of their many predators -- hawks, owls, and every mammalian carnivore from weasel to grizzly bear.
Home ranges of Yukon chipmunks vary in size from one to ten hectares, and may overlap with those of as many as 15 or more other chippers. Although these chipmunks may have burrows within 15 metres of each other, they usually get along peacefully simply by avoiding each other. All of them use seasonally abundant food sources present in first one part, then another, of the group's shared area. If intruders should appear in this area, the normally peaceful chipmunks will fight with and chase out the interl-opers.
Viewing Opportunities
Shy by nature, least chipmunks become bold when accustomed to people. To the annoyance of some, they raid storage sheds and campsites. Most people, though, find these spunky seed-gatherers hard to resist and enjoy their lively antics.
Some sure chipmunk signs are little piles of fruit pulp, opened dandelion heads, or dismembered grass seed heads on rocks, stumps, logs, or ground.
Look for the least chipmunk itself darting about under shrubs and around logs, or high-tailing it across roads and highways. Listen for its hard-to-locate rasping, chattering and chirping sounds. Then look for a tail twitching in time to the calls to confirm the "chipper's" location. If you sit quietly and are patient, it may literally eat out of your hand.