Cool Critters: Chubby-cheeked chipmunks chatter, entertain and even build bathrooms

Chipmunks are so cute that an entire media franchise is modeled after them.

Small and perky with pudgy cheeks, stripes down their backs and a flattened tail cocked straight up, we see them in our backyards, parks, woodlands, meadows and rock piles.

But unlike Alvin and his two brothers, wild chipmunks don’t sing or have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Never mind that. They’ve got their own talents.

For starters, these pocket-sized rodent species are surprisingly diverse. North America is home to 24 chipmunk species, distinguished by their size, color, stripe patterns and where they live. The eastern chipmunk is the largest species, found in the eastern and central parts of the country. The smallest is the least chipmunk, located in mostly sagebrush and grassland areas throughout the West.

Not much bigger than a mouse, the least chipmunk is one of four species that lives in Washington state, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Its territory here overlaps with another pipsqueak – the slightly larger and softer colored yellow-pine chipmunk – the most common and widespread species in the state. Like all chipmunks, they’re capable of packing so much food in their cheeks that they bulge like a college student’s duffle bag.

Thanks to cheek pouches that stretch three times the size of their heads, chipmunks can carry a lot of foodstuff, ranging from seeds, berries and nuts to insects and mushrooms. In one study, a chipmunk was observed filling a single pouch with 60 black sunflower seeds. As we get closer to autumn, they’ll stuff their cheeks more frequently as they stockpile food for their wintertime burrows.

And what skilled architects they are. A chipmunk’s burrow is made up of multiple chambers connected by tunnels. There is a chamber “bathroom,” another to store food, one to sleep and yet another to give birth to two to five baby chipmunks, according to the National Wildlife Federation. They also build camouflaged escape hatches to flee from predators such as snakes, badgers and weasels.

Chipmunks don’t hibernate in winter. Instead, they enter what the Wildlife Federation calls “bouts of torpor,” where their body temperature and heartbeat decrease. Then, every few days, they wake up to eat some of their stored food and defecate.

When chipmunks leave their burrows in the spring, they’re full-blown chatterboxes – chirping, chucking and trilling to communicate with each other. Researchers have found they use distinct calls to warn of approaching predators, and a different call to convey THIS IS MY TURF to other chipmunks and nearby humans.

As a birdwatcher and hiker, Carol Schulz Ellis of Mead finds these little members of the squirrel clan “endearing,” she said. Trekking through local wooded areas, suddenly she’ll encounter flashes of energy and an assortment of sounds as chipmunks – likely the yellow-pine species – scamper across logs and rocks. Sometimes they’ll stop, stand on their hind legs and chomp on a food morsel held by two tiny front paws.

Furthermore, it’s chucklesome that the chipmunk’s high-pitched, repetitive chipping calls can mislead birders, including Schulz Ellis herself, she said.

“I will admit I have often mistaken them for bird chatter, only to discover a chipmunk in the bushes as opposed to one of our feathered friends,” she explained.

“What is there not to love?”