Tree nests of chipmunks with comments on associated behavior and ecology
Broadbooks HE. 1974. Tree nests of chipmunks with comments on associated behavior and ecology. Journal of Mammalogy. 55(3):630-639
Four additional species of Euatmias (amoenus, cinereicollis, palmeri, and ruficaudus), added to E. minimus, speciousus, and sibericus bring to seven the number of tree-nesting chipmunks. Tree nests were at heights of 2.6 to 23 meters. Those made of grass by E. amoenus and ruficaudus were about 30 centimeters in diameter and were used for more than one year. Most tree nests were in conifers (three in woodpecker holes), one was in a clump of young willows, and one was in a cottonwood. It is during the period of weaning and exploration just before the young disperse that tree nests are used by a mother and her family. Chipmunks appear to be the only sciurids and possibly the only rodents in which the mother and her family use both underground and arboreal nests in a given year. Feeding in the pygmy forest of bushes, chipmunks occupy a special niche between those of ground squirrels and tree squirrels.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Broadbooks, Harold
- Units
- YOSE
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, chipmunks, Eutamias, tree nests