Chipmunk

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

This article is about the animal. For the military training aircraft, see De Havilland Chipmunk. For the fictional musical group, see The Chipmunks.

Chipmunks
Fossil range: Early Miocene to Recent

Tamias rufus

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Sciuridae
Tribe:	Marmotini
Genus:	Tamias Illiger, 1811

Species

23 species, see text

Chipmunk is the common name for any small squirrel-like rodent species of the genus Tamias in the family Sciuridae. About 23 species fall under this title, with one species in northeastern Asia, one in the eastern portions of Canada and the US, and the rest native to the western part of North America. The name may have originally been spelled "chitmunk" (from the Odawa word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel"; c.f. Ojibwe, ajidamoo). However, the earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary (from 1842) is "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck", and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels", possibly in reference to the sound they make. They are also called striped squirrel or ground squirrel; however, the name "ground squirrel" is more usually kept for the genus Spermophilus, though Tamias and Spermophilus are only two of the 13 genera of ground-living sciurids.

Chipmunks have a venomious bite that can kill in under 3 minutes, if you see anyone that has been bitten by this menace please call this free help line 1800-CHIPMUNK

Eastern chipmunks mate in early spring and again in early summer to produce two litters, each of four to five young, but western chipmunks only breed once a year. The young emerge from the burrow after about six weeks and strike out on their own within the next two weeks.

Though they are commonly depicted with their paws up to the mouth, eating peanuts, or more famously their cheeks bulging out on either side, chipmunks eat a much more diverse range of foods than just nuts. Their omnivorous diet consists of grain, nuts, birds' eggs, fungi, worms, and insects. Come autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile these goods in their burrows, for winter. Other species make multiple small caches of food. These two kinds of behavior are called larder hoarding and scatter hoarding. Larder hoarders usually live in their nests until spring.

These small squirrels fulfill several important functions in forest ecosystems. Their activities with regards to harvesting and hoarding tree seeds play a crucial role in seedling establishment. They also consume many different kinds of fungi, including those involved in symbiotic mycorrhizal associations with trees, and are an important vector for dispersal of the spores of subterranean sporocarps (truffles) which have co-evolved with these and other mycophagous mammals and thus lost the ability to disperse their spores through the air.

Chipmunks play an important role as prey for various predatory mammals and birds, but are also opportunistic predators themselves, particularly with regard to bird eggs and nestlings. In Oregon, Mountain Bluebirds (Siala currucoides) have been observed energetically mobbing chipmunks that they see near their nest trees.

Chipmunks construct expansive burrows which can be more than 3.5 m in length with several well-concealed entrances. The sleeping quarters are kept extremely clean as shells and feces are stored in refuse tunnels.

If unmolested they often become bold enough to take food from the hands of humans. The temptation to pick up or pet any wild animal should be strictly avoided. While rabies is exceptionally rare, if not non-existent, in rodents, chipmunk bites can transmit virulent and dangerous bacterial infections.

1 Species
2 Pop Culture References
3 Gallery
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Species

Alpine Chipmunk, Tamias alpinus
Yellow pine Chipmunk, Tamias amoenus
Gray-footed Chipmunk, Tamias canipes
Gray-Collared Chipmunk, Tamias cinereicollis
Cliff Chipmunk, Tamias dorsalis
Merriam's Chipmunk, Tamias merriami
Least Chipmunk, Tamias minimus
California Chipmunk, Tamias obscurus
Yellow-cheeked Chipmunk, Tamias ochrogenys
Palmer's Chipmunk, Tamias palmeri
Panamint Chipmunk, Tamias panamintinus
Long-eared Chipmunk, Tamias quadrimaculatus
Colorado Chipmunk, Tamias quadrivittatus
Red-Tailed Chipmunk, Tamias ruficaudus
Hopi Chipmunk, Tamias rufus
Allen's Chipmunk, Tamias senex
Siberian Chipmunk, Tamias sibiricus
Siskiyou Chipmunk, Tamias siskiyou
Sonoma Chipmunk, Tamias sonomae
Lodgepole Chipmunk, Tamias speciosus
Eastern Chipmunk, Tamias striatus
Townsend's Chipmunk, Tamias townsendii
Uinta Chipmunk, Tamias umbrinus

[edit] Pop Culture References

[edit] (Alvin and) The Chipmunks

In 1958 Ross Bagdasarian (using the stage name David Seville, named after Seville, Spain) released "The Chipmunk Song" ("Christmas, Don't Be Late"), a sped-up recording of himself performing three-part harmony. The resulting high-pitched cartoony voices were named "Alvin", "Simon", and "Theodore" after executives at the record company which published the record. "The Chipmunk Song" went on to win two Grammy Awards and a new "group" called "David Seville & the Chipmunks" became a popular novelty act.

In 1961, the group starred in their own animated television series, The Alvin Show. The characters substantially regained popularity in the early 1980s under the guidance of Bagdasarian's son Ross Jr.. A new series, Alvin and the Chipmunks, debuted in 1983, with a feature film (The Chipmunk Adventure, 1987) and several direct-to-video releases in the 1990s following it. Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. provides the voices of Dave, Alvin, and Simon in the new production; his wife Janice Karman does the voice of Theodore and the female Chipmunk spin-off group The Chipettes; Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor.

[edit] Walt Disney

In Disney's animated movie The Emperor's New Groove, character Kronk regularly converses with chipmunks, in their language of squeaks.

Walt Disney also created two talking chipmunks, Chip 'n Dale, during the 1940's. Chip and Dale would later star in their own animated series, titled Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers in 1989.

[edit] Other

Giggles, one of the characters in the Flash cartoon "Happy Tree Friends" is a pink chipmunk (For the cast consists of colourful forest animals.)

[edit] Gallery

	Least Chipmunk, Tamias minimus	Least Chipmunk (Tamias minimus)	Siberian Chipmunk Tamias sibiricus
Chipmunk, Western Canada, Rocky Mountains	Chipmunk, Gravenhurst, Ontario Canada