Charming Chipmunks

A while back I was outside and happened to notice that one of the 'outside' cats (will be doing a post on them soon) had something cornered by a pile of loose bricks by my shed.  I shooed the cat away and picked up one of the bricks to see what the cat was so interested in - it was a little chipmunk.  I had never seen any around before this so was surprised at my find.  I put the brick back and walked away hoping to give it a chance to get away.  I came back a little later and it was still there.  I got a few seeds from the bag of birdseed and sprinkled them around in case it was hungry and again walked away.  I'm assuming that it did finally escape, because that evening I checked and it was gone.  I then took care to stack the bricks a bit more strategically to offer better refuge from any other would-be predator.  But I haven't seen any more.  Around here we get Eastern Chipmunks.

Source:  Wikipedia

How could you not love this little guy?  This particular species has the distinction of having two less teeth than other chipmunks, with 4 toes on their front paws and 5 on their back paws.  I could understand why this guy wouldn't last around here - predators include blue jays (of which there are plenty), and raccoons, as well as hawks and cats.  They eat seeds, nuts, fruit, plants including mushrooms, and insects among other things.

We saw lots of chipmunks in Colorado, especially around my parents' house in Estes Park.  The Colorado chipmunk looks a bit different than the Eastern variety with more distinctive stripes around its eyes.  And the Least Chipmunk, the smallest and most widespread in the U.S. has perhaps the most striking of all.

Colorado Chipmunk  Source:  Wikipedia

Least Chipmunk   Source:  Wikipedia

Both their diets are about the same as the Eastern variety.  All three have a maze of burrows that is used for both sleeping and food caching.  Chipmunks don't actually hibernate, but go into torpor or very slowed activity for the winter.

Also in Colorado we had lots of golden-mantled ground squirrels.  I actually enjoyed them even more than the chipmunks.  They seemed to have more extroverted personalities as well as being larger.  They were quite photogenic and seemed to enjoy posing for their 'close-up'.

Its diet and lifestyle are very like that of the chipmunk.  But UNlike the chipmunk, the ground squirrel does hibernate in the winter.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel took too long to say, so I used to call them all 'chippies' even though I knew the difference, but it used to drive my mother crazy.  Whether chippies or ground squirrels, as long as you aren't inundated by them they are charming indeed.