Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LVIII · Topic 6: Mammal study
58. The chipmunk
Goal: Your child can describe the chipmunk's stripes, cheek pouches and burrow, and compare it with the red squirrel.
You'll need
- Binoculars (optional)
- Woods, a park, a stone wall or a yard with logs and rocks
- Nature notebook (Comstock bases this whole lesson on the field note-book)
What's in the book
The leading thought (it lives more on the ground than the squirrel; protective colors; cheek pouches for food and soil; stores food in its den), the method (field note-book observations with reports now and then, and reading aloud) and seven questions on climbing, colors and stripes, its tail compared with the squirrel's, food and pouches, its home and den, its effect on crops and seeds, and its voice. A sonnet, "To a Captive Chipmunk of the Sierras", follows.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Spring through fall. Chipmunks stay in their dens through most of the winter. Look along stone walls, woodpiles, logs and rocky woods; the eastern chipmunk is common in the East, and many kinds live in the West. Listen for a loud "chip" or a soft "chuck-chuck."
Safety: never touch, feed or corner a wild mammal, and never handle a dead one. Wild animals can bite and can carry rabies and other diseases. Watch from a distance with binoculars. Chipmunks seem tame, but they bite if handled or hand-fed.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
The chipmunk lives more on the ground than does the squirrel; its colors are protective and it has cheek pouches in which it carries food, and also soil when digging its burrow. It stores food for winter in its den.
Ground or tree?
Do you see the chipmunk climbing around in trees like the red squirrel? How high in a tree have you ever seen a chipmunk?
Stripes
What are the chipmunk's colors above and below? How many stripes has it? Where are they and what are their colors? Do you think that these stripes conceal the animal when among grasses and bushes?
Tail
Compare the tails of the chipmunk and the red squirrel. Which is the longer and bushier? Tell if you can the special advantage to the chipmunk in having this less bushy tail?
Full cheeks
What does the chipmunk eat? How does it carry its food? How does it differ in this respect from the red squirrel? Does it store its food for winter use?
Watch for puffed-out cheeks as it runs home.
Its home and voice
Where does the chipmunk make its home? How does it carry away soil from its burrow? How many entrances are there?
Observe carefully the different tones of the chipmunk and compare its chattering with that of the squirrel.
Chipmunk burrow holes are small, neat and have no dirt pile.
Nature notebook
Draw a chipmunk with full cheeks sitting on a stone wall, and count its stripes exactly. Write the date. Ask your child to tell you the leading thought in their own words, then share Comstock's.
Afterwards
Note the last day you see a chipmunk in fall and the first in spring.
Tip
The sonnet on the page is by someone who kept a captive chipmunk and wonders "if my deed were good." Read it together and ask your child what they think.