Eastern Chipmunks in Fall

Eastern chipmunks are busy these days making preparations for winter. They are collecting and storing seeds and nuts in their underground burrows as a stockpile for the oncoming cold weather. Once temperatures reach around 40 degrees, chipmunks will begin a type of semi-hibernation underground spending most of their time sleeping. On warm days they may wake up to eat and even do some foraging to add to their winter pantry.

No matter the season, though, chipmunks are very vulnerable when they are out of their burrows. They make different sounds as a way to warn other chipmunks of danger. For warnings about predators on the ground such as dogs, cats, foxes and raccoons chipmunks will make a rapid, high pitch chip, chip, chip sound. It can actually sound a lot like a bird call. If aerial predators like hawks pose a threat, chipmunks will make a very loud, lower toned and somewhat slower sound of cluck, cluck, cluck. Listening to chipmunk sounds when you are out walking this fall alerts you to the fact that the chipmunks are out too.