Pennsylvania Game News - February 2016 - 63

which might be uttered as many as 130
times a minute for at least 10 minutes.
Their chuck, chuck might occur after
an aerial predator crosses the area.
Lang Elliott, who studied chipmunks
in the Adirondacks, noticed that when
one chipmunk spotted a predator, it
would start chuck, chucking and other
chipmunks would respond in a warning
chorus that spread across the forest.
In any case, they whistle when
fleeing a predator, and during mating
chases.
Although chipmunks have a second
breeding period in July, the spring
breeding period is more successful.
Only select females breed during
both the spring and summer, and a
female born the previous year might
breed for the first time in July.
Most chipmunks have lifespans of
over a year, meaning they can breed at
least once. Few live more than two or
three years, but 13-year-old chipmunks
have been documented in the wild.
Year after year, a chipmunk burrows
near the base of a veranda column and
eats our fallen birdseed in late fall.
I often wonder if it is the same one
or, instead, if we are seeing a succession
of chipmunks.
Burrows and good foraging areas are
at a premium and young chipmunks are
always looking for their own homes,
so one will quickly occupy an empty
burrow.
This is especially true in autumn,
when the chipmunk population is at
its highest point and youngsters are
establishing home ranges and searching
for burrows.
In Pennsylvania, the favorite wild
winter storage foods are beechnuts,
FEBRUARY 2016

maple seeds, acorns and hickory nuts.
Throughout the rest of the year,
chipmunks also eat insects, including
cicadas, earthworms, fungi (especially
the underground fungus Endogone),
small snakes, birds and their eggs,
snails, flower bulbs, frogs, unfolding
new leaves, roots, seeds, salamanders,
wild and cultivated fruits such as strawberries, blackberries and raspberries,
and young mice.
They, in turn, are eaten by large
snakes, hawks, crows, foxes, bobcats,
and domestic dogs and cats.
But their most successful predators
are weasels, which can enter their burrows and chase them down.
The eastern chipmunk's scientific
name, Tamias striatus, means "striped
steward," a tribute to their brownish
black and white stripes and their food
hoarding.
"Chipmunk" comes from the Chippewa name for red squirrel "chetamon,"
meaning "head first," referring to the
way it descends trees.
The Pennsylvania Dutch called
it "fensermaus" or "fence-mouse,"
because this wild creature also lives
comfortably in human-modified environments.
The Delaware Native Americans of
southeast Pennsylvania knew January
as the "ground squirrel month," when
chipmunks emerged from their burrows.
However, the Philadelphia naturalist William Bartram, back in the early
19th century, noted that "on Feb. 17 the
ground squirrel came out of his winter
quarters frisking about in the sun,"
proving that not much has changed in
the lives of these fascinating creatures.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - February 2016
