![]() ![]() In the cold but not freezing burrow, they are protected from the dangers of freezing to death. Temperatures below ground generally stay just above freezing. Its body temperature drops from 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degree Celsius) to only 1 or 2 degrees above the air temperature in the burrow. When it enters torpor, its heart rate drops from 350 beats per minute to 4 beats per minute. A slumbering chipmunk sleeps curled up into a ball, with its fur fluffed up for insulation.Ĭhipmunk among fallen leaves. During the winter in their burrows, they wake and go back to sleep, repeatedly. ( bears and hibernation post)Įastern Chipmunks enter periods of deep sleep, called torpor. There is just one chamber in their burrows which services as both bedchamber and food pantry. They close up their burrows, entrances with soil and vegetation. Chipmunks and bears have something in common, they both experience torpor, not hibernation.Įastern Chipmunks enter their burrows for winter sleeps in late October or early November. Many of us were taught in school that chipmunks were true hibernators, they don’t hibernate. They use their pouches to transport food and soil removed from digging out their burrows.Įnter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. They gather beechnuts, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, acorns, and fungi.Ĭhipmunks have incredibly large, stretchy cheek pouches, each of which is the size of its skull. They store nuts and seeds in their burrows to eat all winter long and into the often food scarce spring. They are mostly vegetarian but they eat animal matter such as earthworms, June bugs, worms, grasshoppers, frogs, reptiles, bird eggs, and even small animals when they can catch them.Īutumn is harvest time to observe them. ![]() ![]() Chipmunk FoodĬhipmunks can feed up in trees, 65 feet above the ground. A back tunnel and entrance is plugged to prevent other animals from entering. The one chamber serves as a bedroom and food store. Their burrows are about two feet below ground. On hot days they will seek the coolness below the ground’s surface. When not active above ground, chipmunks retire to underground burrows. They are most active on bright, warm, windless days. They spend most of their time underground, except for when they forage for food above ground. Chipmunks of the UndergroundĮastern Chipmunks are semi-fossorial (underground dwelling) and strictly diurnal (active during daylight). Apparently, they like having entrances among the stones leading to their underground burrows. The many stone walls in the Philadelphia area are good places to observe this busy little animal. I was on the hawk watching platform watching hawks and other raptors flying high above during the fall migration. The Eastern Chipmunk in the photos was scurrying around at Fort Washington State Park during autumn. And another black stripe runs their the eye with two white stripes on either side. Two white stripes swipe across their cheeks with a black stripe between them. Two black stripes are on each side of their bodies with a white stripe in-between. Long.īoth males and females have the same coloring of reddish brown fur with one thin black stripe running down their spine. A close-up of a chipmunk’s fur and markings. The name, adjidaumo, means “head first”, the way in which they climb down a tree. The English word “chipmunk” is a corruption of the name for the animal in Ojibwa, adjidaumo (the “o” at the end has a nasal pronunciation). The Eastern species lives throughout Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. The Eastern Chipmunk ranges from Quebec west to Manitoba south to Georgia. Here in the eastern United States, the Eastern Chipmunk is the most common and widespread species. In North America, there are 25 species of chipmunks. ![]()
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