Animal
Eastern chipmunk
The eastern chipmunk is a small, striped squirrel. It stuffs seeds into its cheeks and carries them home to its burrow under the ground.
Eastern chipmunks are small ground squirrels with five dark stripes down their backs. They live in the woods, yards and parks of eastern North America, carry food in stretchy cheek pouches, and store it in underground burrows for the winter.
Tamias striatus is a diurnal, mostly ground-foraging squirrel of eastern North America. A larder hoarder with large cheek pouches, it spends the winter underground in torpor, waking to feed on its stores. Abundant and listed as Least Concern, it is an important prey species and a disperser of fungal spores.
Photo: Tyler Savitski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the eastern chipmunk
The eastern chipmunk is a little squirrel with stripes.
It has reddish-brown fur, a white tummy and stripes on its face and back. It holds its flat, furry tail up in the air when it runs.
The eastern chipmunk is a small member of the squirrel family. Its body is only 13 to 15 centimeters long, with a tail of 8 to 10 centimeters. It weighs only 66 to 115 grams.
Look for five dark stripes running down its back, with white stripes between the outer ones, and light and dark stripes around its eyes. Its rump is reddish, its belly is white, and its flat, hairy tail is not bushy like a tree squirrel's.
Tamias striatus is a small sciurid: Animal Diversity Web gives a mass of 66 to 115 grams, and Mass Audubon a body of 5 to 6 inches (13 to 15 centimeters) with a tail of 3 to 4 inches, about a third the size of an eastern gray squirrel. The fur is grayish to reddish brown, varying by region, with white underparts and a yellowish to reddish rump patch.
Five dark stripes run along the back and sides, the longest down the midline, with narrow white bands between the side stripes; the face is striped around the eyes. ADW notes that the stripes stop before the rump patch, which helps distinguish it from the smaller least chipmunk, whose stripes reach the tail. The ears are rounded and under 20 millimeters, and the forefeet have four toes, the hind feet five.
Quick facts
- Group
- Mammal
- Length
- 0.13 to 0.15 m
- Weight
- 0.07 to 0.12 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- up to 8 years
Woods, yards and burrows
Eastern chipmunks live in North America.
They live in woods, yards and parks. Their home is a burrow with tunnels and rooms under the ground.
Eastern chipmunks live in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, from Nova Scotia west to Saskatchewan and south to Oklahoma and Louisiana. They are not found in most of Florida.
They like open woods with plenty of logs, stumps and rocks to hide under, and they also live in suburban yards and city parks. Each chipmunk digs a burrow with tunnels up to 10 meters long and rooms for sleeping and storing food.
The IUCN's global assessment describes a range across the eastern United States and adjoining Canada, from southeast Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia, south to western Oklahoma and eastern Louisiana and to coastal Virginia. It is absent from peninsular Florida and from the coastal plain between Florida and northern North Carolina, and has been introduced to Newfoundland.
Prime habitat is mature beech-maple forest, though chipmunks also use open deciduous woods with cover, brushland, hedgerows, conifer forest and suburban areas, avoiding swamps (ADW). The burrow, less than a meter deep, has interconnected galleries up to 10 meters long, a nest chamber of crushed leaves about 30 centimeters across, and food-storage rooms. Entrances, about 5 centimeters wide, have no pile of soil: chipmunks spread the soil or use it to plug old entrances.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Woods, brushland, yards and parks of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada, from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia and south to Oklahoma, Louisiana and Virginia; absent from peninsular Florida and the southeastern coastal plain. The Newfoundland population was introduced.
Places: Canada and United States.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, Mongolia, Belize, China, Japan and 4 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Pockets full of seeds
Chipmunks eat seeds, nuts, berries and fruit.
They stuff food into pouches in their cheeks. Then they carry it home and store it in their burrow.
Chipmunks mostly eat seeds, nuts, berries and fruit. They also eat insects, earthworms, slugs, snails, mushrooms and sometimes bird eggs.
A chipmunk carries food in stretchy cheek pouches on each side of its mouth. Researchers have seen one stuff nearly 72 sunflower seeds into its pouches! It stores most of its food in rooms in its burrow, and it is especially busy collecting in early autumn, getting ready for winter.
Staples are fruit, seeds and nuts, supplemented with insects, earthworms, slugs, birds' eggs and fungi (ADW); Mass Audubon adds snails and insect larvae, and occasionally small birds, frogs and small snakes. Food is carried in large cheek pouches; Mass Audubon cites a report of nearly 72 black-oil sunflower seeds in one chipmunk's pouches.
Caching goes on all year but peaks in early autumn. Eastern chipmunks are mainly larder hoarders, keeping one large store in the burrow, though they also scatter-hoard. ADW notes that larder-hoarded seeds cannot grow into seedlings, while occasional scatter-hoarding can help seedlings establish, and that chipmunks spread the spores of several fungi. Caches are marked with a smell that helps the owner find them again.
Stripes, pouches and paws
A chipmunk has stretchy pockets inside its cheeks.
Its stripes help you tell it apart from other squirrels. It digs its own burrow, and it can climb too.
A chipmunk's cheek pouches stretch to carry a big load of seeds home. Its front feet have four toes and its back feet have five.
Chipmunks mostly search for food on the ground, but they are good climbers too. Their striped coat makes them easy to recognize, and their small, rounded ears pick up the warning calls of other chipmunks.
Large internal cheek pouches on either side of the mouth let a chipmunk move food in bulk to its larder. The forefeet have four toes and the hind feet five; ADW describes the species as a ground forager but a proficient climber, and the IUCN notes that it commonly climbs trees and shrubs.
Chipmunks lack the fat stores needed for true hibernation. Instead, according to Mass Audubon, they become torpid in winter, with lowered body temperature and heart rate, waking every few days to eat from their stores. The rounded ears are under 20 millimeters long. Hearing matters: chipmunks change their behavior after alarm calls, becoming more watchful and making shorter, more direct runs.
Growing up underground
Baby chipmunks are born in an underground nest.
They are tiny, with no fur, and their eyes are closed. After about six weeks they peek out of the burrow for the first time.
Eastern chipmunks usually have two litters a year, one in spring and one in summer. About 31 days after mating, the mother gives birth to 2 to 5 babies in her underground nest. Each weighs only about 3 grams, and they are born blind and hairless.
The young drink milk for about 40 days. At about six weeks they take short trips outside, and at about two months they leave to find or dig their own homes.
There are two breeding seasons, in early spring and midsummer. Females mate with several males during a brief estrus, and males travel an average of 170 meters from their own burrows to mate (ADW). Gestation is 31 days according to the IUCN and Mass Audubon (ADW gives 35). ADW and Mass Audubon give litters of 2 to 5; the IUCN gives 4 to 15, most often 3 to 5.
The altricial young weigh about 3 grams at birth (ADW) and are no more than 2.5 inches long. They are weaned at about 40 days and make short trips from the burrow at six weeks; the mother then grows aggressive and finally keeps them out, and they are independent at about two months. Males disperse farther than females. Most young first breed the spring after their birth.
Chips, chucks and trills
Chipmunks are awake in the daytime.
They live alone and guard the area around their burrow. They make chip-chip-chip calls to warn of danger.
Eastern chipmunks are active by day, busiest in mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Each one lives alone and guards the area close to its burrow.
Chipmunks are very noisy. They make three kinds of calls: chips and chucks, which can go on for up to half an hour when a predator is spotted, and short trills when a predator is chasing them. Hawks, owls, foxes, weasels, bobcats, coyotes and pet cats and dogs all hunt chipmunks.
Chipmunks are diurnal, with activity peaks in mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and are solitary and territorial, defending a home range of 800 to 6,000 square meters that is largest in early summer and early fall (ADW). Males establish hierarchies in high-speed chases when competing for females.
ADW describes three alarm calls: chipping and chucking, repeated for up to 30 minutes when a predator is seen, and shorter trills given during pursuit. Females trill most often near relatives, and ADW suggests that trills mainly warn kin. Listeners become more vigilant, run shorter and more direct routes and delay leaving their burrows. Predators include weasels, foxes, lynx, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, fishers, red-tailed hawks, goshawks, owls, and domestic cats and dogs.
Did you know?
A chipmunk hides the door to its burrow.
A chipmunk's burrow entrance has no pile of dirt beside it, so it is hard for predators to spot.
Chipmunks spread excavated soil or use it to plug old entrances, so the 5-centimeter entrance hole has no telltale mound (ADW, Mass Audubon).
Common and safe
There are lots of eastern chipmunks.
They do well in woods and in gardens. Keeping pet cats indoors helps keep chipmunks safe.
Eastern chipmunks are common, and the IUCN lists them as Least Concern because they are widespread, abundant and face no major threats. A square of land 100 meters on each side usually holds 10 to 22 of them.
Unlike many animals, chipmunks do well in suburbs with roads and houses. Pet cats hunt them, so groups such as Mass Audubon ask people to keep their cats indoors.
The IUCN assessed Tamias striatus as Least Concern in 2016 (errata 2017), with a stable population, because it is very widespread and abundant and faces no major threats; the range includes several protected areas. Densities vary with the season from less than one to 15 per acre, sometimes up to 30 (IUCN); ADW gives a typical 10 to 22 per hectare.
Chipmunks thrive in suburban landscapes that many species cannot use, and Mass Audubon encourages keeping cats indoors to reduce hunting of wild animals. Because they are abundant, ADW notes, chipmunks are valuable prey for many predators. Their burrows under patios and walkways rarely cause structural damage, according to Mass Audubon.
IUCN Red List
How is the eastern chipmunk doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
A chipmunk can fill its cheeks with lots and lots of seeds.
Researchers have seen an eastern chipmunk stuff nearly 72 sunflower seeds into its cheek pouches.
Mass Audubon cites reports of nearly 72 black-oil sunflower seeds packed into one chipmunk's cheek pouches.
-
A chipmunk hides the door to its burrow.
A chipmunk's burrow entrance has no pile of dirt beside it, so it is hard for predators to spot.
Chipmunks spread excavated soil or use it to plug old entrances, so the 5-centimeter entrance hole has no telltale mound (ADW, Mass Audubon).
-
Chipmunks wake up for snacks in winter.
Chipmunks do not truly hibernate. They wake every few days in winter to eat from their food stores.
Eastern chipmunks lack the fat stores for true hibernation; instead they enter torpor, broken by frequent arousals to feed (ADW).
-
Chipmunks have three kinds of warning calls.
Eastern chipmunks chip, chuck and trill. Chips and chucks can go on for up to half an hour.
ADW describes chipping and chucking, repeated for up to 30 minutes when a predator is seen, and shorter trills during pursuit.
Words to know
- cheek pouch
- a stretchy pocket inside the cheek for carrying food
- burrow
- a hole or tunnel dug in the ground as a home
- torpor
- a deep, cool rest that saves energy, shorter than hibernation
- larder
- a store of food kept in one place
- diurnal
- active in the daytime
Discovery challenge
-
Where does a chipmunk carry its food?
How does a chipmunk carry seeds back to its burrow?
Which body part lets a chipmunk transport food in bulk to its larder?
- In its cheek pouches
- On its back
- Wrapped in its tail
Show the answer
In its cheek pouches
It stuffs food into pockets in its cheeks.
It fills stretchy cheek pouches on each side of its mouth, sometimes with dozens of seeds.
Large internal cheek pouches on either side of the mouth.
-
How many dark stripes run down a chipmunk's back?
How many dark stripes does an eastern chipmunk have on its back and sides?
How many dark longitudinal stripes mark the eastern chipmunk's back and sides?
- Two
- Five
- Ten
Show the answer
Five
Five dark stripes!
Five: one down the middle and two on each side.
Five, the longest along the midline, ending before the rump patch.
-
Where does a chipmunk stay in winter?
Where do eastern chipmunks spend the winter?
Where does an eastern chipmunk spend the winter in torpor?
- In its burrow under the ground
- Flying south to warm places
- On a high, open branch
Show the answer
In its burrow under the ground
It stays snug in its burrow and wakes up for snacks.
Underground in its burrow, waking every few days to eat stored food.
In its burrow, where it alternates torpor with arousals to feed from its larder.
-
Where do eastern chipmunks live?
Where are eastern chipmunks native?
Which region is the eastern chipmunk's native range?
- Africa
- Eastern North America
- Antarctica
Show the answer
Eastern North America
They live in North America.
In the eastern United States and southeastern Canada.
From Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia and south to Oklahoma, Louisiana and Virginia, excluding peninsular Florida.
Places where you might see it
-
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United States
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Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Identify an eastern chipmunk by its stripes, rump and tail.
- Explain how cheek pouches and a burrow larder help a chipmunk survive winter.
- Describe the difference between torpor and true hibernation.
- Describe the chipmunk's life cycle and its alarm calls.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might keeping all your food in one store be a good idea, and why might it be risky?
- Why would a chipmunk hide its burrow entrance?
- Why might a chipmunk warn its relatives about a hawk, even if calling is risky?
Try at home or in class
- Count how many sunflower seeds (or dried beans) you can hold in one closed hand, then compare with a chipmunk's 72.
- Watch a yard, park or wood edge for ten minutes and listen for chipmunk calls; note what happens before and after each call.
Key vocabulary: cheek pouch, burrow, torpor, larder, diurnal
Where these facts come from
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Tamias striatus (global assessment) , IUCN Red List
- Tamias striatus (eastern chipmunk) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan
- Chipmunks , Mass Audubon
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 24, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.