About Chipmunk: Appearance, biology, life cycle, habitat, diet, behaviors

Need chipmunk removal in your hometown? We service over 500 USA locations! Click here to hire us in your town and check prices - updated for year 2020.

The poor chipmunk doesn’t have an easy time of things out ‘in the wild’. They’re very small creatures, not much bigger than a large mouse, and because of their small size, they’re easy prey for many predators.



What do chipmunks look like?
There are over 25 different species of chipmunk, and there are reportedly all but one of them present in North America. The final chipmunk lives far away — Asia. As you can imagine, because there are so many different species of this one animal, they can come in a wide and varied mix of shapes, colors, and even sizes.

A member of the squirrel family, the chipmunk is the small creature within that family tree. Again, because there are different species, they can come in different sizes. The largest species of chipmunk can reach up to eleven inches from head to tail, just under five ounces in weight. The smallest of chipmunk species are usually a few inches shorter — only coming in at eight inches in length max, with a weight of just a couple of ounces.

The tail of the chipmunk can often make up the bulk of the animal, usually within about three to five inches in length.

Again, different species will come with different colors and patterns, but chipmunks are generally known to have fur that is either a brown or grey shade, or red in some cases, with stripes and patches that are lighter in tone. These patches generally cover specific areas of the body — the head, down the back, and also along the sides of the animal.

Where do chipmunks live?
Chipmunks wreak havoc for farmers and other owners of agricultural land. They’re very well known for their digging action, creating burrows under the ground that can be as wide as three feet, and also as long as thirty feet or more. As you can probably imagine, these massive burrows create huge problems with the safety and stability of your land. It could easily collapse, especially if these animals are left to create burrows underground for some time.

Although very problematic for humans, the burrows that chipmunks create are actually very intricate. They have separate sections for different purposes. There have been different sections observed to work as nurseries, for example, as well as another area that has been set aside for the storage of food. Other areas seemed to be set aside for resting periods. The animals are very tidy animals, and they don’t seem to like food in their resting spots.

The entrances of these underground burrows are usually rather difficult to find, as the creatures keep them well hidden. They usually own a territory of about half an acre too.

What do chipmunks eat?
Much like other nuisance animals, the chipmunk will eat pretty much anything and everything. That makes it a scavenger, and also an omnivore. It will eat food that is both plant and animal derived. They much prefer a diet of things such as eggs, frogs, mushrooms and other fungi, fruit, insects, berries, seeds, nuts, etc. Bird feeders, for example, would provide pretty much all the plant-based food they’d love to eat. The meat-based produce they can easily get from pet bowls left out on the back porch. This is a prime spot for animal invaders, and is commonly forgotten about by homeowners. If you're leaving food out there, you're just encouraging these creatures to come in closer and take a bite for themselves.

Just like hamsters, the chipmunk has punches in both cheeks. These are used to store lots of food, which the animal will then take back to its burrow to hide in a feeding section. Their cheeks can grow to three times the usual size, giving them plenty of room to stash their goodies. It’s been reported that just one chipmunk can carry and then store over eight pounds of food stuff in just one twelve month period. Impressive, right?

How do chipmunks reproduce?
The mating season is generally when the weather warms up, because these creatures sleep away most of the winter. They don’t hibernate, as such, because they still wake up a few times in the colder seasons to find food. It will be from February onwards, usually until around April-May time, that these creatures will be breeding with a vengeance. Females will then give birth to a few young, usually at least two and no more than six or seven. Tiny little creatures, only about the same size as a bumblebee, they are helpless for quite a while, and both parents rally together to rear the youngsters. It won’t be until the babies are six or seven weeks of age that they will start to venture outside the burrow and find food for themselves, and when they reach around a year age, they’ll then be ready to start mating for themselves.

Sadly, chipmunks are not known to last for longer than a couple of years in the wild, the biggest reason being the huge predator factor. There really are a number of animals waiting to snap up these small critters, and their youngsters in a nest are prime pickings for even the smallest predators.

Are chipmunks aggressive animals?
Chipmunks are not really known for their aggressive nature. In fact, they run away a lot. They have a lot of predators in the natural world, and these can include animals such as coyotes and raccoons, weasels and bobcats, as well as snakes, eagles, hawks, and more.

There are times when the chipmunk will turn up the aggression. If they are cornered with no other way out, an attack is imminent. The animal has nothing to lose in that case. Chipmunks will also be fiercely defensive over their youngsters, and will defend their burrows to the death too. They’ll attack anything that gets too close to the burrow entrance, especially if it looks like it might invade.

Read my How to Get Rid of Chipmunks guide.
For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How To Guide: Who should I hire? - What questions to ask, to look for, who NOT to hire.
How To Guide: do it yourself! - Advice on saving money by doing wildlife removal yourself.
Guide: How much does wildlife removal cost? - Analysis of wildlife control prices.