Advice from a Chipmunk 🌿

🐿 Did you know that a group of chipmunks is called a “scurry”?

This aptly captures their fast-paced lifestyle: a single chipmunk can gather up to 165 acorns in a single day. In fact, many of them gather enough food to survive the entire winter in just a few days – but they typically hoard much more than is necessary. They stash their considerable bounty in burrows that go down as far as 3 feet into the ground and can be up to 30 feet long. This is also where they spend their winters, mostly in a deep torpor, waking only to feed on the food they spent the warmer months collecting. 

A chipmunk’s foraging benefits the larger ecosystem. As they gather snacks, they also spread seeds and disperse important mycorrhizal fungi that live around tree roots, ensuring a thriving symbiotic relationship. In fact, their burrowing can even help aerate and recycle soil!

Some of the most famous chipmunks (Alvin, Simon, and Theodore) initially captured the world’s hearts with song back in the 1950s – but even real chipmunks do have a sizable vocal repertoire, including announcing territorial claims and sounding the alarm over nearby predators. Their noises include chips, chucks, and trilling alarm calls. Next stop, Carnegie Hall!* 🐿

(*as long as they have snacks there)

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