A guide to the life and times of your local chipmunk.

A conspicuous, iconic sound of the autumn woods and suburban backyards is the "Chuk-chuk" territorial chant of Eastern chipmunks delivered from atop stonewalls.

Solitary except during spring and summer mating, chipmunks inhabit tunnels with hidden entrances and chambers for sleeping, nesting and storing food.

Chipmunks are quiet in summer. By autumn, they gather seeds and nuts continuously, storing grains, nuts, seeds, berries, fruits and mushrooms during an average lifetime which spans three busy Octobers.

In 1982, one female was observed carrying six white oak acorns in her mouth and cheek pouches to a burrow 100 feet away. The 2-minute round trip amassed an estimated 116 acorns in one hour. Another chipmunk was estimated to have stored a bushel of chestnuts, hickory nuts and corn kernels over 3 days!

One excavated storage chamber held 308 acorns and a second storage chamber held 82 acorns.

In November, chipmunks retreat into burrows to enter winter torpor. They awaken underground eating every 3 to 6 days. Mild weather occasionally brings them to the surface. That fitful sleeping and waking cycle suggests adaptation to continuous hibernation is not complete.

But laboratory studies using temperature-sensitive radio transmitters confirm chipmunks are true hibernators with respiration rates which fall from 60 breaths to 20 breaths per minute in torpor and body temperatures that drop from 96 degrees to 42 degrees °F.

Unless a hungry weasel finds the hidden entrance to a burrow, chipmunks active underground are more likely to survive to reappear in March.