Red-tailed Chipmunk (Neotamias ruficaudus) lives in mountain forests across Western North America. It feeds on seeds and nuts. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Red-tailed Chipmunk
- At just 230 mm long, about the length of a school ruler, the red-tailed chipmunk carries a bushy tail that adds another 105 mm, roughly the size of a standard pencil. Its body weight swings between 54 g in spring and 60 g in fall, making it as light as a handful of pennies yet sturdy enough to haul sizable seed caches. This compact build lets it dart through forest litter, store food in cheek pouches, and escape predators with a quick, agile burst that larger squirrels simply can't match.
- You'll find this chipmunk perched on the edge of upland meadows from 720 m up to 2,400 m, that's the height difference between a low-land valley and the summit of a modest mountain. Living in coniferous forests, woodland edges, glades and bushy meadow borders, it splits its time between the ground and occasional tree climbs.
- The red-tailed chipmunk's pantry reads like a forest grocery list: fir and pine seeds, honeysuckle berries, cranberries, whortleberries, huckleberries, locust-tree seeds, snow-brush seeds, buckbrush, thistle, willow herb, grasses and even dandelion flowers and leaves. It tucks many of these finds into cheek pouches for later, and surprisingly, traps baited with meat have also caught it.
- Breeding season kicks off in late spring, and after a gestation of about 31 days the mother delivers an average litter of five pups. Those newborns stay hidden in an underground burrow (or occasionally a tree nest tucked under dead twigs) for roughly 45 days before they first emerge to explore the world.
- Stretching from southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta down through northeastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana, the red-tailed chipmunk occupies a cross-border corridor of the Pacific Northwest. This range ties together two Canadian provinces and three U.S. states, linking diverse forest types and mountain systems. Such a broad, trans-national footprint buffers the species against localized threats, because loss of habitat in one area can be offset by healthy populations elsewhere.
Sources
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At a glance
RangeWestern North America
HabitatMountain forests
DietSeeds and nuts
About the Red-tailed Chipmunk
In the sun-dappled forests of the American West, the red-tailed chipmunk darts through the underbrush with an air of irrepressible vitality, its rusty-hued tail flicking back and forth like a metronome as it scurries from one hidden cache to the next. With a twitch of its whiskers and a flick of its ear, this diminutive creature navigates the intricate network of tree roots and leaf litter, its paws barely making a sound on the forest floor. As it moves, the chipmunk's bright, inquisitive eyes shine like tiny jewels, drinking in the secrets of its woodland realm with an insatiable curiosity.
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