Chipmunks are loved or despised by many homeowners and some like myself love how adorable they look but don’t love the holes they dig and their voracious appetite for my plants and bulbs. 

Over the last few days I have been watching a family of chipmunks that are residing in my front yard. The love and attention mom gives them, the siblings grooming each other and also watching them wrestling with each other has been very interesting and entertaining to watch.  

Eastern Chipmunks are omnivores. Along with the nuts and seeds we think of them eating, they also eat snails, frogs, and insects.  They live in burrows underground. They can climb but they are typically seen on the ground. The females raise the young alone and they have two litters, the first one in February to April and the second June to August.  They will have 2-6 babies in each litter. Chipmunks do not hibernate but during the winter months they stay in their burrows underground eating the food they have stored and sleeping for long stretches of time. On a warm day they may come out to gather more food. 

Although seen as a pest by many, they provide food for predators and they also disperse seeds through their droppings and they are very cute as they stuff their cheeks full of seeds!