For other uses, see Chipmunk (disambiguation).
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Chipmunks
Temporal range: Early Miocene to Recent |
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| Least chipmunk |
| Scientific classification |
| Kingdom: |
Animalia |
| Phylum: |
Chordata |
| Class: |
Mammalia |
| Order: |
Rodentia |
| Suborder: |
Sciuromorpha |
| Family: |
Sciuridae |
| Tribe: |
Marmotini |
| Subtribe: |
Tamiina |
| Genus: |
Tamias
Illiger, 1811 |
| Subgenera |
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3, see text
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Chipmunks are small, striped squirrels. All species of chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk, which is found in Asia.
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Contents
- 1 Etymology and taxonomy
- 2 Diet
- 3 Ecology and life history
- 4 Classification
- 5 See also
- 6 Notes
- 7 Further reading
- 8 External links
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Etymology and taxonomy
Chipmunks may be classified either as a single genus, Tamias, or as three genera: Tamias, which includes the eastern chipmunk; Eutamias, which includes the Siberian chipmunk; and Neotamias, which includes the 23 remaining, mostly western, species. These classifications are arbitrary, and most taxonomies[citation needed] over the twentieth century have placed the chipmunks in a single genus. However, studies of mitochondrial DNA show that the divergence between each of the three chipmunk groups is comparable to the genetic dissimilarity between Marmota and Spermophilus.[1][2][3][4]
Tamias is Greek for "storer," a reference to the animals' habit of collecting and storing food for winter use.[5]
The common name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk," from the native Odawa (Ottawa) word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel" (cf. Ojibwe, ajidamoo)[6] The earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary (from 1842) is "chipmonk," but "chipmunk" appears in several books from the 1820s and 1830s.[7] Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck," and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels," probably in reference to the sound they make. In the mid-1800s, John James Audubon and his sons included a lithograph of the chipmunk in their Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, calling it the "Chipping Squirrel [or] Hackee."[8] Chipmunks have also been referred to as "striped squirrels," "chippers," "munks," "timber tigers," or "ground squirrels," although the name "ground squirrel" usually refers to other squirrels, such as those of the genus Spermophilus.
Diet
Chipmunks have an omnivorous diet consisting of grain, nuts, fruit, berries, birds' eggs, small frogs, fungi, worms, insects and on occasions small mammals like young mice.[9][10] At the beginning of 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. Cheek pouches allow chipmunks to carry multiple food items to their burrows for either storage or consumption.[11]
Ecology and life history
Eastern chipmunks mate in early spring and again in early summer, producing litters of four or five young twice each year.[9] Western chipmunks breed only once a year. The young emerge from the burrow after about six weeks and strike out on their own within the next two weeks.[12]
These small mammals fulfill several important functions in forest ecosystems. Their activities harvesting and hoarding tree seeds play a crucial role in seedling establishment. They 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.[13]
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.
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.[citation needed]
Chipmunks typically live about three years, although have been observed living to nine years in captivity.[14]
Chipmunks in captivity are said to sleep for an average of about 15 hours a day. It is thought that mammals which can sleep in hiding, such as rodents and bats, tend to sleep longer than those that must remain on alert.[15]
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Northern Wisconsin Chipmunks, USA
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Western Chipmunk inside Zion National Park, Utah, USA
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Western Chipmunk in the Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA (39 s)
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Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Quebec, Canada
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Eastern Chipmunk in the Erindale Park, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Classification
Subgenus Tamias[16]
- Eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus
Subgenus Eutamias
- Siberian chipmunk, Eutamias sibiricus
Subgenus Neotamias
- Alpine chipmunk, Neotamias alpinus
- Yellow-pine chipmunk, Neotamias amoenus
- Buller's chipmunk, Neotamias bulleri
- Gray-footed chipmunk, Neotamias canipes
- Gray-collared chipmunk, Neotamias cinereicollis
- Cliff chipmunk, Neotamias dorsalis
- Durango chipmunk, Neotamias durangae
- Merriam's chipmunk, Neotamias merriami
- Least chipmunk, Neotamias minimus
- California chipmunk, Neotamias obscurus
- Yellow-cheeked chipmunk, Neotamias ochrogenys
- Palmer's chipmunk, Neotamias palmeri
- Panamint chipmunk, Neotamias panamintinus
- Long-eared chipmunk, Neotamias quadrimaculatus
- Colorado chipmunk, Neotamias quadrivittatus
- Red-tailed chipmunk, Neotamias ruficaudus
- Hopi chipmunk, Neotamias rufus
- Allen's chipmunk, Neotamias senex
- Siskiyou chipmunk, Neotamias siskiyou
- Sonoma chipmunk, Neotamias sonomae
- Lodgepole chipmunk, Neotamias speciosus
- Townsend's chipmunk, Neotamias townsendii
- Uinta chipmunk, Neotamias umbrinus
Extinct:
See also
- Golden-mantled ground squirrel
- Alvin and the Chipmunks
- Chip 'n' Dale
Notes
- ^ Wilson, D. E.; D. M. Reeder (2005). "Mammal Species of the World (MSW)". Archived from the original on 2007-06-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20070623030727/http://nmnhgoph.si.edu/msw/. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
- ^ Piaggio, A. J. and Spicer, G. S. 2001. Molecular phylogeny of the chipmunks inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b and cytochrome oxidase II gene sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 20: 335–350.
- ^ Piaggio, Antoinette J.; Spicer, Greg S. (2000). "Molecular Phylogeny of the Chipmunk Genus Tamias Based on the Mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit II Gene". Journal of Mammalian Evolution 7 (3).
- ^ Musser, G. G.; Durden, L. A.; Holden, M. E.; and Light, J. E. (2010) "Systematic review of endemic Sulawesi squirrels (Rodentia, Sciuridae), with descriptions of new species of associated sucking lice (Insecta, Anoplura), and phylogenetic and zoogeographic assessments of sciurid lice." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 339.
- ^ John O. Whitaker, Jr.; Robert Elman (1980). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals (2nd edition ed.). New York: Knopf. p. 370. ISBN 0-394-50762-2.
- ^ http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=chipmunk.
- ^ Google Books
- ^ Audubon, John James; Bachman, John (1967). Imperial Collection of Audubon Mammals. New York: Bonanza Books, a division of Crown Publishing Group. pp. 52.
- ^ a b Hazard, Evan B. (1982). The Mammals of Minnesota. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 52–54. ISBN 0-8166-0952-7. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sjoQK1bedB0C&pg=PA53&dq=eastern+chipmunk+mate#PPA54,M1.
- ^ Eastern Chipmunk - Tamias striatus - NatureWorks
- ^ West Virginia Wildlife Magazine: Wildlife Diversity Notebook. Eastern chipmunk
- ^ Schwartz, Charles Walsh; Elizabeth Reeder Schwartz, Jerry J. Conley (2001). The Wild Mammals of Missouri. University of Missouri Press. pp. 135–140. ISBN 0-8262-1359-6. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uEWl0ZM6DfUC&pg=PA140&dq=eastern+chipmunk+young#PPA140,M1.
- ^ Apostol, Dean; Marcia Sinclair (2006). Restoring the Pacific Northwest: The Art and Science of Ecological Restoration in Cascadia. Island Press. p. 112. ISBN 1-55963-078-7. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CsGyhzFBjyAC&pg=PA112&dq=chipmunk+sporocarps.
- ^ Information on Chipmunks http://www.essortment.com/information-chipmunks-56048.html
- ^ "40 Winks?" Jennifer S. Holland, National Geographic Vol. 220, No. 1. July 2011.
- ^ Tamias, Mammal Species of the World, 3rd ed.
Further reading
- Baack, Jessica K. and Paul V. Switzer. "Alarm Calls Affect Foraging Behavior in Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias Striatus, Rodentia: Sciuridae)." Ethology. Vol. 106. Dec. 2003. 1057–1066.
- Gordon, Kenneth Llewellyn. The Natural History and Behavior of the Western Chipmunk and the Mantled Ground Squirrel. Oregon: 1943
- Nichols, John D. and Earl Nyholm (1995). A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
External links
- Etymology Online: Chipmunk
- Wildlife and Nature – Chipmunk
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Living species of tribe Marmotini (ground squirrels)
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- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Rodentia
- Suborder: Sciuromorpha
- Family: Sciuridae
- Subfamily: Xerinae
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Ammospermophilus
(antelope squirrels) |
- Harris's antelope squirrel (A. harrisii)
- Espíritu Santo antelope squirrel (A. insularis)
- Texas antelope squirrel (A. interpres)
- White-tailed antelope squirrel (A. leucurus)
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel (A. nelsoni)
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Callospermophilus
(golden-mantled ground squirrels) |
- Golden-mantled ground squirrel (C. lateralis)
- Sierra Madre ground squirrel (C. madrensis)
- Cascade golden-mantled ground squirrel (C. saturatus)
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Cynomys
(prairie dogs) |
- Gunnison's prairie dog (C. gunnisoni)
- White-tailed prairie dog (C. leucurus)
- Black-tailed prairie dog (C. ludovicianus)
- Mexican prairie dog (C. mexicanus)
- Utah prairie dog (C. parvidens)
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| Eutamias |
- Siberian chipmunk (E. sibiricus)
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Ictidomys
(little ground squirrels) |
- Mexican ground squirrel (I. mexicanus)
- I. parvidens
- Thirteen-lined ground squirrel (I. tridecemlineatus)
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Marmota
(marmots) |
Subgenus Marmota: Gray marmot (M. baibacina)
- Bobak marmot (M. bobak)
- Alaska marmot (M. broweri)
- Black-capped marmot (M. camtschatica)
- Long-tailed marmot (M. caudata)
- Himalayan marmot (M. himalayana)
- Alpine marmot (M. marmota)
- Menzbier's marmot (M. menzbieri)
- Groundhog or woodchuck (M. monax)
- Tarbagan marmot (M. sibirica)
Subgenus Petromarmota: Hoary marmot (M. caligata)
- Yellow-bellied marmot (M. flaviventris)
- Olympic marmot (M. olympus)
- Vancouver Island marmot (M. vancouverensis)
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Neotamias
(western chipmunks) |
- Alpine chipmunk (N. alpinus)
- Yellow-pine chipmunk (N. amoenus)
- Buller's chipmunk (N. bulleri)
- Gray-footed chipmunk (N. canipes)
- Gray-collared chipmunk (N. cinereicollis)
- Cliff chipmunk (N. dorsalis)
- Durango chipmunk (N. durangae)
- Merriam's chipmunk (N. merriami)
- Least chipmunk (N. minimus)
- California chipmunk (N. obscurus)
- Yellow-cheeked chipmunk (N. ochrogenys)
- Palmer's chipmunk (N. palmeri)
- Panamint chipmunk (N. panamintinus)
- Long-eared chipmunk (N. quadrimaculatus)
- Colorado chipmunk (N. quadrivittatus)
- Red-tailed chipmunk (N. ruficaudus)
- Hopi chipmunk (N. rufus)
- Allen's chipmunk (N. senex)
- Siskiyou chipmunk (N. siskiyou)
- Sonoma chipmunk (N. sonomae)
- Lodgepole chipmunk (N. speciosus)
- Townsend's chipmunk (N. townsendii)
- Uinta chipmunk (N. umbrinus)
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| Notocitellus |
- Tropical ground squirrel (N. adocetus)
- Ring-tailed ground squirrel (N. annulatus)
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Otospermophilus
(rock squirrels) |
- Baja California rock squirrel (O. atricapillus)
- California ground squirrel (O. beecheyi)
- Rock squirrel (O. variegatus)
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| Poliocitellus |
- Franklin's ground squirrel (P. franklinii)
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Sciurotamias
(Asian rock squirrels) |
- Pére David's rock squirrel (S. davidianus)
- Forrest's rock squirrel (S. forresti)
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Spermophilus sensu stricto
(Old World ground squirrels) |
- Alashan ground squirrel (S. alashanicus)
- S. brevicauda
- European ground squirrel (S. citellus)
- Daurian ground squirrel (S. dauricus)
- Red-cheeked ground squirrel (S. erythrogenys)
- Yellow ground squirrel (S. fulvus)
- Russet ground squirrel (S. major)
- S. pallicauda
- Little ground squirrel (S. pygmaeus)
- S. ralli
- S. relictus
- Speckled ground squirrel (Spermophilus suslicus)
- Taurus ground squirrel (Spermophilus taurensis)
- Asia Minor ground squirrel (Spermophilus xanthoprymnus)
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| Tamias |
- Eastern chipmunk (T. striatus)
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Urocitellus
(Holarctic ground squirrels) |
- Uinta ground squirrel (U. armatus)
- Belding's ground squirrel (U. beldingi)
- Idaho ground squirrel (U. brunneus)
- Merriam's ground squirrel (U. canus)
- Columbian ground squirrel (U. columbianus)
- Wyoming ground squirrel (U. elegans)
- Piute ground squirrel (U. mollis)
- Arctic ground squirrel (U. parryii)
- Richardson's ground squirrel (U. richardsonii)
- Townsend's ground squirrel (U. townsendii)
- Washington ground squirrel (U. washingtoni)
- Long-tailed ground squirrel (U. undulatus)
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Xerospermophilus
(pygmy ground squirrels) |
- Mohave ground squirrel (X. mohavensis)
- Perote ground squirrel (X. perotensis)
- Spotted ground squirrel (X. spilosoma)
- Round-tailed ground squirrel (X. tereticaudus)
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