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The coloring of the chipmunk is peculiar. Five black-brown stripes run along the back along the pale-whitish background, which turns into ocher-rusty behind. A striped pattern compared to a solid color is considered primitive. It is believed that the appearance of spotted cubs in uniformly colored species (in carnivores, in deer) is rather archaic than adaptive.
Where to find a chipmunk?
In terms of body structure and lifestyle, the chipmunk occupies an intermediate position between a tree-dwelling squirrel and a fully ground ground squirrel. Chipmunk is an inhabitant of bushes, undergrowth and windblows. He quickly moves on the ground and climbs trees well, but he does both worse than specialized species - gopher and squirrel. They find most of their food on the ground, less on bushes and trees. The claws on the fingers of a chipmunk and a squirrel are short, curved and sharp in order to cling well to the bark of trees; gopher claws are longer and less curved
As an adaptive trait for a tree-climbing lifestyle, one should consider the well-developed sensitive apparatus in the chipmunk in the form of vibrissae. There are about 50 of them on the head and front legs. A squirrel - a typical dendrobiont - has more than 70, a gopher has less than 40
The chipmunk deftly runs along thick branches, sloping trunks and wells and is very careful on thin twigs. He reluctantly jumps from branch to branch and from tree to ground. It happens that, making his way along the branches for cones or berries, he breaks down. Jumping from a tree to the ground from a height of 5 m and above is more like a fall. At the same time, the animal strenuously balances with its tail, with difficulty maintaining desired position body
Squirrels jumping from tree branches resemble gliding flying squirrels. At first, the squirrel falls vertically, but, gaining speed, deviates from the vertical and plans. At the same time, in flight, the squirrel can change direction and descend to the ground or onto a tree trunk. Its long tail combed to the sides (33% of the entire bearing surface of the animal) serves as a rudder and a parachute.
 Forage collection
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A chipmunk is worse than a squirrel and a flying squirrel, moving along the trunks and branches of trees. He is a poor excavator and does not make moves in the thickness of the snow, as mice and voles do. The chipmunk has a highly developed food storage instinct, which is generally characteristic of most squirrels. The presence of well-developed cheek pouches facilitates the transfer of seeds to the hole.
Since the nests of chipmunks are underground, the decisive condition for the habitation of the chipmunk is to a large extent the presence of light-textured and sufficiently dry soil for the construction of shelters. A chipmunk digs a hole in dry loose soil with groundwater no closer than 120-150 cm from the surface. The latter circumstance explains the rare occurrence or complete absence of chipmunk in highly humid and marshy places.
What do chipmunks eat?
The diet of chipmunks is varied. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a chipmunk eats almost everything it finds. Preference is given to pine nuts and pine seeds - depending on what is found in the place of residence of the animal. Where there is a pine nut, the chipmunk feeds almost exclusively on it. Larch seeds are eaten rarely, spruce - even less often.
 "And what I don't eat, I'll have a snack!"
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Chipmunk, although he prefers plant foods, cannot be called an exclusively herbivore. He can eat a snail, a spider, even ixodid tick and insects: grasshopper, locust, bug, beetle, often swallows ants and sawflies. In addition, chipmunks hunt lizards, pick up dead and weakened small birds; cases of eating voles by chipmunks have been noted
Chipmunks have a well-defined instinct for food storage. In the cheek pouches, the rodent brings 8-10 g of food at a time: 54 pine nuts, or 224 wheat grains, or 225 mouse pea seeds (the highest recorded values \u200b\u200bare indicated). Up to 2.5 kg of feed can usually be found in a granary. The smallest stocks are in the burrows of young males that have wintered for the first time, the largest stocks are in the burrows of old females.
Chipmunk breeding
After wintering, males emerge from their burrows first. Females are inactive for the first 2-4 days; usually they sit on a knot or on a fallen tree - they bask in the sun. With a friendly warm spring, mating takes place in a short time: from mid-April to early May, with a cold one, it drags on until the end of May. During this period, the animals make peculiar invocative cries. Both males and females call. Females, as a rule, do not go to the call, but only respond. Males, having heard the voice of another chipmunk, rush to his call, responding with short quiet sounds. Sometimes up to 10 males or more gather for the cry of a female. Fights sometimes break out between them. Chasing each other, the animals run along the ground, deadwood, climb tree trunks. While the males are fighting, the females are quietly feeding. The male, who drove away all rivals or remained near her while others are fighting, mates
Pregnancy lasts 35-40 days. Young will be born in mass at the end of May, on average there are 6 of them in a litter. Newborn chipmunks weigh an average of 4.3 g. At first, the cubs have no regulation of body temperature. When cooled (for example, in the absence of a mother), they fall into an anabiotic state; while their body temperature drops to the temperature of the environment. In this state, they can go without food for a long time. Thermoregulation is established in young people on the 10th day; on the 21st day they are completely covered with wool
Chipmunks in winter
 chipmunk hole
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Chipmunks spend the winter in burrows. The burrow is arranged simply: a short passage ends with a single nesting chamber. Sometimes in burrows there are blind otnorki - latrines, most often in the burrows of females. The nesting chamber is lined with leaves, less often with grass, lichens and moss. There is no mound at the entrance to the hole: the animal scatters the excavated earth in the grass; so the entrance to the hole can be difficult to detect
Chipmunk hibernation is intermittent. The state of torpor alternates with short-term awakenings, during which the animal is relatively active. During torpor, the chipmunk is immobile. It takes the form of a ball: the head is placed between the hind legs, the limbs and tail are tightly pressed to the body. In this position, the open surface of the body becomes minimal, and the heat transfer decreases. In a state of stupor, the chipmunk's body temperature drops to 8-10, sometimes up to 2.8°C. The number of respiratory movements is reduced to 3-4 times / min, sometimes there are 2-4-minute pauses in breathing. During periods of awakening, the animal moves in the nest and feeds; at the same time, his body temperature rises to the summer level (37-38 ° C)
Chipmunks hibernate alone. Experience has shown that when a male and a female winter together in captivity, one of them sooner or later gnawed the other. There is a report of 12 chipmunks hibernating together in captivity. Already at the beginning of hibernation, six of them were bitten. How many animals are left by the end of hibernation - the author does not report
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In the conditions of life in natural environment Habitat Chipmunk is in a state of suspended animation (or hibernation) for almost the entire cold season. However, the life of animals (in particular, rodents) at home differs sharply from the natural one. That is why, in order not to disturb the biorhythms of your pet, consider a number of significant patterns that allow you to bring environmental conditions closer to optimal ones.
How does a chipmunk prepare for winter?
So how does a chipmunk hibernate? In nature, the hibernation of the animal begins in late autumn and ends in early March. At home, this process proceeds somewhat differently. Despite the fact that chipmunks are warm-blooded animals, the temperature environment does not significantly affect his health.
Most often, the animal hibernates at home when the temperature drops significantly. Immediately before hibernation, the activity of the animal is significantly reduced, it becomes sleepy, lethargic and lifeless. Most of the time the animal spends in a small wooden house, which should be installed in the cage in advance.
Most of the day the animal sleeps; metabolic processes in his body slow down. Chipmunk wakes up solely for the sake of meals. The hibernation itself is intermittent and lasts in "blocks", each of which lasts approximately a week. The final awakening is in March. How to help an animal to hibernate?
And how does a chipmunk living in captivity prepare for winter?
Make sure that the ambient temperature does not rise too high: chipmunks tolerate heat much worse than cold. Make sure that the animal can check and replenish its food stores and is always full. The air temperature must be lowered, however, this should be done gradually - in order to avoid shock to the animal.
During this period, it is also permissible to move the cage away from the battery and other heating elements.
The conditions of hibernation of the animal should be as close to natural as possible. Despite the fact that the animal will be in a state of suspended animation, keep the cage clean, and also make sure that the feeder and drinker are always full.
Hibernation is a natural state that most rodents go through - including domestic chipmunks. The cold season will allow the animal to gain strength and properly prepare for a new stage of life; you can give him all the help he needs.
Chipmunk is a small rodent of the squirrel family. Its length is up to 15 centimeters, and its tail is up to 12. It weighs up to 150 grams. It looks like a very cute and beautiful animal that you want to pick up, stroke and feed.
The name chipmunk comes from the characteristic sound called "breaker" made before the rain. Chipmunk looks similar to, only on the back it has five black stripes along the back. There are light stripes between them.
These animals have 25 species, but the most numerous and common three species are:
1. Chipmunk East American
2. Chipmunk squirrel or red squirrel
3. Siberian chipmunk (Eurasian)
Chipmunk features
Their coat is gray-red in color, and on the abdomen - from light grayish to white. They shed once a year at the beginning of autumn, changing the fur to dense and warm. Their pulse rate reaches 500 beats per minute, and the respiratory rate is up to 200. The body temperature is normally 39 degrees. They are partially similar to a squirrel:
- The front legs are longer than the hind legs
- Big ears
- small claws
And also chipmunks look like some outward signs and behavior:
- They dig holes and live in them.
- They have cheek pouches.
- No tufts on the ears.
- Gets on its hind legs and monitors the situation.
Chipmunks are not aggressive, compared to squirrels, and quickly get used to people. Therefore, it is not rare cases of residence chipmunk in a cage at home.
Chipmunk Habitat
Most chipmunks live in the North deciduous forests. Siberian chipmunk spreading from Europe to Far East, and south to . Living in the taiga, chipmunks climb trees well, but the animals make their homes in a hole. The entrance to it is carefully disguised with leaves, branches, maybe in an old rotten stump, in a dense bush.
A burrow in animals up to three meters long with several dead-end compartments for pantries, toilets, accommodation and feeding of cubs in females. The living room is covered with dry grass. Chipmunks have large bags behind their cheeks, in which they carry food supplies for the winter, and also drag the earth away from it when digging holes for the purpose of camouflage.
Each chipmunk has its own territory, and it is not customary for them to violate its borders. An exception is the spring mating of a male and a female for procreation. During this period, the female convenes the males with a specific signal. They run and fight.
The female mates with the winner. After that, they disperse to their territories until next spring. Animals are diurnal. At dawn, they come out of their holes, climb trees, feed, bask in the sun, play. At nightfall, they hide in burrows. In autumn, I prepare food up to two kilograms for the winter, dragging them behind my cheeks.
Mid-October to April chipmunks sleep, curled up in a ball, and hide the nose to the abdomen. The tail covers the head. But in winter they wake up several times to eat and go to the toilet. Spring in sunny days the animals begin to crawl out of their holes, climb a tree and bask.
Chipmunks can spend the night right on a tree, covering themselves with their tail like a blanket.
Chipmunks are forest animals and interesting facts about them
When danger approaches, the animal stands on its hind legs and emits an intermittent whistle. For 15 meters from a predator or a person, a chipmunk runs away, continuing to whistle more often, taking danger away from the hole. Usually runs and hides in thick bushes or climbs a tree.
Listen to the chipmunk whistle
By whistling, you can recognize the animal is sitting or running. There are rumors that chipmunk suicidal animal. If someone ruins the animal's hole and eats all the supplies, then he finds a forked branch, sticks his head into this horn and hangs himself :). If this were so, then in the taiga one could see numerous gallows made of chipmunks. However, this is not observed.
About chipmunks it must be said that they sometimes become carriers of certain diseases that are dangerous to humans: tick-borne encephalitis and toxoplasmosis. But they themselves are prone to many diseases:
- Skin - dermatitis
- Cardiovascular from fright
- Respiratory. There is sneezing and fluid from the nose.
- Gastrointestinal
- traumatic
The chipmunk is used as a pet in many families. He quickly adapts next to a person and behaves calmly. Being not non aggressive animals, in a few days chipmunk is already beginning to take food from the hands of a person. But for its maintenance at home, special conditions are needed:
- The cage must be at least 1 meter by 1 meter and 50 centimeters high
- Must have a wheel
- Inside the cage is a house for overnight stay with dimensions of 15 by 15 centimeters with a hole with a diameter of 3 centimeters. Lay the inside with dry grass.
In a cage, they live on the principle of a hole. In one corner they go to the toilet, in the other corner they put supplies. Though chipmunks animals forest, but they are unpretentious to food at home. They love all kinds of cereals, fruits, cookies, lumpy sugar, carrots. Animals need to be given chalk, boiled eggs.
The chipmunk itself is a clean animal, but you should sometimes remove supplies from his pantry, because they deteriorate. The presence of stocks indicates that the animal is full when feeding. After a few days, you can let him walk around the room. At home, the animals do not sleep in winter, but lead an active lifestyle, but offspring are very rare.
Reproduction and lifespan
With the onset of spring, the male and female mate, and a month later, babies from 5 to 12 appear. After mating, the female drives the male to her territory, and, in the future, brings up the cubs alone. Feeding babies lasts about two months. After that, they can exist independently.
Pictured is a baby chipmunk
Babies grow out of proportion. First the head grows, and then the body grows. After two weeks, the babies are overgrown with fur with stripes on the back. After three weeks, their eyes open. In nature, chipmunks live 2-3 years due to the large number of enemies:
A chipmunk can hide a lot of grains behind its cheeks.
Animals make stocks in a hole, laying out different types to separate rooms. These bins are needed for spring, when there is practically little food. When the sun begins to warm well, the chipmunk pulls out the rest of the supplies to dry.
Chipmunks have become so beloved that their characters have appeared in cartoons: Chip and Dale and Alvin and the Chipmunks. And the cities of Krasnoturinsk and Volchansk in the Sverdlovsk region have the image of a chipmunk on their coats of arms.
On the screen, viewers meet with a trinity of chipmunks speaking in a squeaky voice. They do not just talk, but also create a musical trio and perform chipmunks' songs. The film "The Chipmunks" glorified the musician Dave Saville, who wrote the songs for this series.
Many generations of children have grown up on Chip and Dale. Everyone liked their mischievous and cute faces. Animal chipmunk in nature, no less cute character.
thrifty jumper
Chipmunk is a small rodent of the squirrel familyChipmunks are wonderful animals with puffy cheeks. These animals belong to rodents, come from the squirrel family.
What does a chipmunk look like
Chipmunks are small in size, their length, excluding the tail, is about 16 centimeters. The tail of the animal is not small, about 10 centimeters. Chipmunks are very light in weight, their mass is approximately 100 grams. Outwardly, the animal resembles a squirrel, only a very small size. The coat color of these animals is reddish-yellow, on the abdomen - the color is lighter. On the back there are five stripes along the body.
Animal habitats
Chipmunks can be found in coniferous and mixed forests. In our country, they live in the Far East and Siberia. However, in the Eastern European part it can only be seen occasionally. Favorite places for settlement are the edges, located next to the forest glades. Chipmunks also like to settle in deadwood and rotten stumps.
Lifestyle and behavior of chipmunks
The animal prefers to lead a daytime lifestyle. He moves perfectly through the trees thanks to his tenacious paws. The movements of chipmunks are spasmodic. Their activity depends on the season. For example, in the summer, these animals have the most mobile lifestyle. They are cheerful, cheerful, move a lot, jump on trees, prepare supplies for the winter, except for too hot days. In extreme heat, they try to do all their "things" from the early morning. In the spring, when the first warm days are just coming, chipmunks love to climb to the top of the tree and bask in sunshine. Their behavior at this time is very lethargic and lazy.
Winter time These animals are characterized by hibernation. But, as the observations of scientists have shown, chipmunks sometimes do wake up to eat. Their fat reserves are not enough for the whole winter period, so they feed on their provisions prepared for the occasion in the summer.
What do chipmunks eat?
The basis of the diet is nuts, seeds of trees and shrubs. They are especially attracted to cone seeds. coniferous trees, such as, for example, cedar or cedar dwarf (this tree is a mini-copy of cedar, its cones are also tasty, but two times smaller than cedar). Collecting nuts, a chipmunk eats some of them immediately, and takes some to its storage, making supplies for the winter. These animals can also eat various forest berries as food. Most of all, he is sometimes interested not even in the berries themselves, but in the seeds contained in them (for example, in raspberries or rose hips). Sometimes insects or mollusks can get to him for "lunch", as food.
How do these animals reproduce and what kind of babies do they have?
As soon as chipmunks wake up after hibernation, their mating season begins. It lasts approximately 2-4 weeks. Then comes pregnancy, its duration in chipmunks is approximately 30 days. One female gives birth, on average, from four to ten baby chipmunks. For 40 days after birth, the cubs feed on their mother's milk. When the age of the kids comes to two months old, they leave the parental "home" and begin to live on their own.
(Tamias sibiricus).
Name
The Russian name of the animal is a borrowing from the Tatar language (tat. boryndyk). Also in the first half of the 20th century, there was a version that the word is a borrowing from the Mari word uromdok.
Appearance
Depending on the species, the weight of chipmunks can be from 30 to 120 g, and the size is from 5 to 15 cm with a tail length of 7 to 12 cm. hallmark all species are five dark stripes along the back, separated by white or gray stripes. The rest of the color of chipmunks is red-brown or gray-brown. Since this is a common feature of all chipmunks, certain types at first sight difficult to distinguish.
Spreading
Chipmunks are distributed almost throughout North America from the Arctic Circle to central Mexico. Eastern American Chipmunk ( Tamias striatus) forms a separate subgenus that is found in the east of the continent. 23 species from the subgenus Neotamias live in the western part North America. The Siberian chipmunk is found from Northern Europe up to the Korean Peninsula and northern China, as well as on the island of Hokkaido. In Central Europe, feral chipmunks have taken root, having escaped from their breeding farms.
The main habitat of chipmunks is the forest area. The East American chipmunk inhabits the deciduous forests of New England, the Siberian chipmunk inhabits the taiga, and the lesser chipmunk ( Tamias minimus) - subarctic coniferous forests of Canada. Some species have adapted to open areas overgrown with shrubs.
Chipmunk dwelling
The genus of chipmunks is often divided into three subgenera, of which two consist of only one species.
- Subgenus Tamias
- Eastern American chipmunk ( Tamias striatus), eastern North America
- Subgenus Eutamias
