Chipmunks

By Iain MacLeod on Friday, December 26, 2003.

listen:

Ever wonder how a chipmunk spends the winter? You may be jealous to find out.

I'm Iain MacLeod from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, and this is Something Wild?

One question we have gotten here at Audubon is, what do chipmunks do for the winter? They certainly disappear for several months. Do they hibernate? If so, then why do they spend the entire fall collecting food?

Chipmunks live underground in dens that have complex tunnel systems and separate areas for sleeping, living, and food storage. Their entrances are commonly seen: perfectly round holes an inch or two in diameter near rock piles or trees-or in the middle of your lawn. These holes generally head straight down for about a half a foot, then suddenly level out into a complicated network of tunnels and chambers.

Chipmunks do spend the fall collecting large quantities of food that they store for the winter. They will eat different kinds of nuts, such as pine and hickory nuts. Acorns are certainly a favorite, as are all kinds of berries, and anything else they can get their paws on, actually. Insects and even mice will be eaten if a chipmunk can catch them.

Once cold weather arrives, chipmunks do go into a kind of torpor. Although it isn't technically hibernation, their metabolism slows and they do "sleep" for long periods of time. They don't have enough body fat to make it through the entire winter, though, so every once in a while, they wake up and stagger over to a food storage area for a snack before going back to sleep. This is why they spend so much time in the summer and fall storing food.

One thing they don't do is poke their noses outside until winter is almost over.

Hmmmm?.. Sleep for long periods of time. Keep a large quantity of food handy that you can access while half-asleep. Wake up when the days are longer and warmer. Sounds like a great plan for the long winter!

If you have a chipmunk trivia or any other natural history question that you would like answered on Something Wild, email us at somethingwild@ nhpr.org.

Something Wild is a joint production of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain MacLeod.