Bushra Griffith
Chipmunks are squirrel-like rodents commonly found in parks and backyards. They are known for their chubby cheeks, which they use to store and transport food to their underground burrows. While chipmunks typically eat nuts, berries, seeds, grains, roots, and tubers, some have been known to enjoy tomatoes. They are also polygamous and solitary, with females mating with multiple partners but not sharing their burrows. So, do chipmunks like cheese?
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Do chipmunks like cheese? | Yes, chipmunks do like cheese. |
| Latin name | Tamias striatus |
| Origin of the word "chipmunk" | Possibly from the Algonquin word "jidmoonh" or ajidamoonh, meaning "head first" |
| Other names | "Chubby cheeks", "striped storer" |
| Diet | Nuts, seeds, berries, grains, roots, tubers, young shoots, and leaves |
| Behavior | Solitary, polygamous, hoarders of food |
| Habitat | Underground homes with multiple chambers and tunnels |
| Communication | "Chips" and "chucks" |
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What You'll Learn
- Chipmunks are known to eat nuts, berries, seeds, grains, roots, tubers, shoots, and leaves
- They build nests underground, in stone walls, or near fallen logs
- Female chipmunks breed twice a year and can have up to eight babies
- Chipmunks are active hoarders and store food in their underground homes
- They are polygamous and solitary, communicating through various chips and chucks
Chipmunks are known to eat nuts, berries, seeds, grains, roots, tubers, shoots, and leaves
Chipmunks are omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and animal matter. Opportunistic feeders, they will eat whatever they can stuff into their cheeks. They are not known to be picky eaters, although they may show preference towards certain foods.
In the wild, chipmunks will eat almost anything they can find. Their diet largely consists of seeds, nuts, fruits, grains, insects, worms, and fungi. They particularly like nuts and will gather up acorns and pecans enthusiastically. They also eat berries, and are known to enjoy grapes and tomatoes. If food is scarce, chipmunks will also eat grasses, shoots, and roots to survive. They also feed on flowers and leaves, particularly currants, dandelion, oyster plant, and glacier lily.
The red-tailed chipmunk consumes fungi and small invertebrates, such as locusts. The Eastern chipmunk is known to forcefully snatch bird eggs and nestlings from bird nests. They also stalk small invertebrates before attacking and feeding on them. The least chipmunk, the smallest member of the squirrel family, mostly dines on plant material. Their preferred foods include seeds, young shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits, earthworms, and insects.
Chipmunks are known to eat cheese only occasionally.
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They build nests underground, in stone walls, or near fallen logs
Chipmunks build their nests underground, in stone walls, or near fallen logs. They are known for their bold and friendly relationship with humans, but they live a life of solitude, with each chipmunk having its own burrow and home range, never living communally.
A chipmunk's burrow is an extensive and complex system, consisting of a series of tunnels, pockets, and chambers. The tunnels vary in width and may follow alongside large tree roots. The side pockets are used for hoarding food, storing empty shells, and turning around in narrow spots. The central nesting chamber is where the chipmunk sleeps and spends most of its time during the winter months. It is lined with insulating materials like leaves, grasses, and thistledown, providing a cozy space for the chipmunk to rest.
Chipmunks typically have multiple entrances to their burrows, which are camouflaged under rocks or bushes, allowing for quick escapes from predators, collapses, or flooding. These entrances lead to the main nesting chamber, which can be up to 20-30 feet underground. The burrow system expands over time, with new chambers added each year.
Chipmunks often establish their burrows in stone walls, providing them with dirt-free entrances and a safe habitat. They also sometimes build their nests near fallen logs, taking advantage of the cover and protection the logs provide.
While we may enjoy watching chipmunks scurry off with seeds and nuts, their underground homes are carefully planned and constructed to ensure their survival during the cold winter months.
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Female chipmunks breed twice a year and can have up to eight babies
Chipmunks are part of the squirrel family and are known for their distinctive light and dark stripes along their cheeks and backs. While they may appear harmless, these small rodents can cause significant destruction, especially in gardens and on properties. They are known to feast on nuts, berries, seeds, and grains, roots, tubers, young shoots, and leaves.
Female chipmunks breed twice a year and typically give birth to litters of four to five babies, also known as a "fur of chipmunks", in late spring. The young chipmunks stay in the nest for up to six weeks before venturing out on their own. With two breeding seasons a year, a female chipmunk can have up to eight babies annually. This can result in large extended families of chipmunks, which can lead to even more damage to plants and property.
Chipmunks are excellent tree climbers and swimmers, and they can be found in a variety of habitats, including plains, mountains, forests, and even deserts. They typically live alone in holes or burrows called dens and hibernate during the cold winter months.
While chipmunks primarily feed on nuts, seeds, and other plant materials, they are also known to enjoy the occasional morsel of cheese. Some people even use cheese as bait to trap chipmunks that may be causing trouble in their gardens or properties. It is important to note that while chipmunks may seem cute and harmless, they are wild animals and should be respected as such.
By understanding the breeding habits of female chipmunks and their potential impact on their surroundings, homeowners can take preventive measures to protect their gardens and properties from potential damage caused by these small but destructive creatures.
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Chipmunks are active hoarders and store food in their underground homes
Chipmunks are active hoarders and enjoy storing food in their underground homes. They are known to eat nuts, berries, seeds, grains, roots, tubers, shoots, and leaves. They also have a penchant for cheese, peanut butter, and even grapes.
Chipmunks are famous for their chubby cheeks, which they stuff with food to carry back to their burrows. These critters design elaborate underground homes with multiple levels and chambers for sleeping, storing food, and other purposes, all connected by tunnels spanning up to 30 feet. They use their front feet to dig and dislodge soil, expanding their burrows, and their cheek pouches to move the soil elsewhere.
These striped storers, as their Latin name, Tamias striatus, suggests, can store up to a gallon of seeds and nuts in their food chambers to sustain themselves during the winter months. While they don't hibernate, they do spend a significant portion of the winter sleeping and occasionally wake up to grab a meal from their food stash.
The food chambers in their underground homes ensure that chipmunks have easy access to sustenance during harsh weather conditions or periods of scarcity. This hoarding behavior has been observed and utilized by humans in historical times of famine. European colonists and Indigenous peoples would sometimes dig up the chipmunks' food caches to supplement their own diets, benefiting from the high-protein nuts and seeds stored by these resourceful rodents.
In addition to their underground food storage, chipmunks also scavenge for food in their surroundings. They are known to steal tomatoes from gardens and enjoy eating grapes and other fruits. Their constant search for food keeps them active and ensures they have enough to sustain themselves and their offspring.
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They are polygamous and solitary, communicating through various chips and chucks
Chipmunks are polygamous and solitary creatures, and they have many methods of communication. They are vocal communicators, using a series of repeated chips and chucks to express different things. Eastern chipmunks, for example, use these sounds primarily to advertise their territorial claims. These territorial calls can sometimes lead to aggression if another chipmunk challenges the claim.
Chipmunks also have different types of alarm calls to indicate different types of predators. For instance, they make a twittering sound when they are darting into their burrows, and a different sound for a hawk, a flying predator. The yellow-pine chipmunk has about 10 distinct calls, each communicating different information to other chipmunks. Trills, for example, are reserved for desperate alarm calls when a chipmunk is being pursued by a predator. Other chipmunks react to these trills by increasing their vigilance.
In addition to vocal communication, chipmunks also communicate through body language. They chase each other and use basic mammalian postures to indicate aggression, dominance, submission, and non-aggressive encounters like mating. During mating, chipmunks touch noses and sniff each other's cheeks, necks, and rears to obtain chemical information through secretions from anal glands.
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Frequently asked questions
There is no evidence to suggest that chipmunks like cheese. They are known to eat nuts, berries, seeds, grains, roots, tubers, shoots and leaves.
Chipmunks are known to eat nuts, berries, seeds and grains. They also dig for roots and tubers and eat young shoots and leaves.
No, chipmunks do not hibernate. They spend much of the winter sleeping and wake up every few weeks to eat a meal from their food chamber.
