Daily Postcard: Chipmunks Visit Pond On Barranca Mesa

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on October 21, 2021
- 6:02 am

Daily Postcard: A pair of chipmunks visit a pond in the back yard of a residence Wednesday morning on Barranca Mesa. Chipmunk bodies are 5-6 inches long and have a tail that’s 3-4 inches long. As chipmunks scamper along the ground, they hold their tail in the air. Seeds, berries, nuts and fruit are the mainstays of a chipmunk’s diet, but they also eat insects, insect larvae, slugs, snails and earthworms. Occasionally they will even eat the eggs of small birds—such as sparrows and juncos—in addition to frogs and small snakes. Chipmunks possess cheek pouches in which they store food before depositing it in their burrow, which will sustain them during the winter. Researchers have reported seeing a chipmunk stuff nearly 72 black-oil sunflower seeds in its pouches. A chipmunk’s burrow system is quite amazing. They dig an entrance hole 2 inches in diameter down to around 2 feet, then continue digging parallel to the surface for up to 10 feet before terminating the tunnel in a sleeping chamber. They’ll then excavate chambers off the tunnel for a bathroom, storing food and giving birth. Once the chambers have been completed, the chipmunk uses dirt to plug up the working tunnel and makes a new entrance hole that lacks a mound of dirt. As a result, the new entrance—which is usually located under stone walls, fallen trees, or rocks—goes unseen by predators. Source: massaudubon.org. Photo by Selvi Viswanathan