Squirrels and chipmunks in the winter time… What do they do and how are they different from each other?

These guys have different ways of handling the winter months.  Two different types of squirrels are ground squirrels and tree squirrels.  Chipmunks are a part of the ground squirrel family.

Chipmunks are known to mostly hibernate in the winter time, but it is not really a true hibernation. They will wake up occasionally to eat and go to the bathroom and then they’ll go back to sleep.  Chipmunks will spend summer and fall gathering food to hide in their tunnels underground, in preparation for the winter.  They have certain areas in these tunnels where they hide all their food. They also will store food in their cheeks for the winter. They’ll fill up their cheeks and go to sleep and then when they wake up, they’ll just eat from what’s in their cheeks.  They’ll do this until that supply is gone and, then, when their cheeks are empty and they wake up, they eat from the large amounts of food that they have stored in designated places throughout their underground castles.  They also have a designated bathroom area.

We used to have one in our backyard that lived underneath our large wood pile on our patio. We would see him all summer and fall running around collecting as much food as he could, and then zooming back into his home underneath the wood pile. Being curious about what a chipmunk’s underground mansion looks like, I looked up some pictures. They have quite a set up down there. Those little holes that we see chipmunks disappear into can be up to 6 feet deep.  They have tunnels leading to their nest and then other tunnels leading to where they hoard their food.  They have various separate areas in which they keep food.  They also have several entrances in case they need a quick escape into their houses.

Tree squirrels spend fall eating lots of food, whatever they can find.  They like to build up their body fat, providing them with an extra layer, so they can keep warm in the winter time. They also collect lots of food and will bury it in places all around their nests.  If they forget where they hid some of their food, these seeds will grow into trees. Tree squirrels don’t hibernate, but they do sleep more in the winter, especially on extra cold days. Sometimes they may even sleep for a few days, but you will see them out and about often in the winter time.