PA Ecology V

Seeing how it's cold outside and most animals that are normally out and about well, aren't, it was rather hard to find an animal for this week's blog entry. What I found this week was not unlike my previous ecology post, the squirrel. This week the only animal I could find in my backyard was the eastern chipmunk. It lives in primarily deciduous areas, as do most other chipmunk species, which populate most of North America. Its conservation status is least concern, meaning that with no unforeseeable changes to their lifestyle they will be around for years to come.

The eastern chipmunk has mostly reddish-brown fur on top with a lighter belly and dark short furry tail. Its fur is striped with dark and light stripes atop its regular coat. Eastern chipmunks are usually smaller then six inches long, less than 9 including the tail. Chipmunks normally weigh less than a pound. Eastern squirrels will have many litters of three to five pups every spring, while western chipmunks usually produce one litter per year.

Chipmunks make their burrows underground, with many different passages for food, refuse, living, and etc. While most of their diet is berries, leaves, and other plant matter, they will eat bird eggs, worms, and a frog occasionally if it is small enough.

Predators to the eastern chipmunk include dogs, snakes, raccoons, foxes, owls, coyotes, and cats, all of which like to eat squirrels as well. Like squirrels, chipmunks have ears that they can move independently in order to stay on high alert at all times in all directions. Chipmunk's escape their predators by either dashing into their burrows or up the nearest tree.

Not unlike squirrels, chipmunks play a small role in its community. But it is a role that matters still. For many predators they are a quick source of food. It may not be a keystone species but it lives in the keystone state, so that makes the eastern chipmunk important enough.

Sources:

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/eastern_gray_squirrel.htm

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/tabid/6646/Default.aspx

http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/eastern_chipmunk.htm

http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/chipmunk.htm

http://www.wonderclub.com/Wildlife/mammals/easternchipmunk.htm

http://naturalhistory.uga.edu/~gmnh/gawildlife/index.php?page=speciespages/species_page&key=tstriatus

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