Howdy folks. We know you don’t come here out of a thirst for statistics, so we wanted to get you back into the action as soon as we could. Brad had perfect timing as he just provided us the latest drop of adventures to share. Nothing better than the present to pop a fresh one off the queue, while I battle the last remaining spirits in the new machine. Only one pillar left to port, the digital darkroom – no more delay excuses, I’ve run out of distractions and all the “squirrels” have been rounded up and put to work cleaning the Intrigued HQ grounds….wait is that competitive gardening coming on the TV!?!?!…I better let you go.
Take it away Brad…
Recently Jan and I signed up for an assignment in Alaska during late summer. Tough duty, I know. To get ready for our trip to the Yukon (actually, I’m not sure we’ll even see the Yukon, but it sounded better), we attended a presentation on the tour we were taking. The tour guide was giving us some information about some of the wildlife there. He said that often visitors are not able to tell the types of bears apart. Alaska has both grizzly and black bears. But often the grizzlies are very dark colored, and the black bears have very light fur. To the casual observer they are indistinguishable. The guide gave us a sure-fire methodology to tell them apart in a pinch. Are you ready? Here it is:
If you find yourself too close to a bear and you don’t know which kind it is – climb a tree. A black bear will follow you up the tree. A grizzly bear will simply knock the tree over. Identification problem solved.
Nothing we saw on our trip through Yosemite and adjoining parks was anything like that. Well, except for this black bear from Sequoia National Park last summer (link here). Jan and I only saw very small furry critters. To be fair, some were quite good at climbing trees, we can’t rule out that they are part black bear based on what we learned above, but I seriously doubt it.
Our story begins here. As does the identification dilemma for hikers near National Parks. No, I’m not talking about bears any longer. Thankfully today’s subject is much more approachable and far less dangerous and does not involve any tree climbing, at least not on your part. I’m talking about chipmunks and ground squirrels. Yes, there is a difference between chipmunks and ground squirrels. Before I jump in, I know this may get confusing (I certainly was), so let me give you a primer.
Chipmunk vs. Ground Squirrel identification primer:
- One website says the difference between a chipmunk and a ground squirrel is: Chipmunks are small mammals with distinct stripes, while the ground squirrel has body stripes like chipmunks, but no stripes on its head.
- Another website says something similar: One easy way to tell them apart is by their stripes. Chipmunk stripes run the length of their bodies, including their heads. Ground Squirrel stripes start at the neck and run along their backs, but they do not have stripes on their heads. (Someone was splitting hairs when they wrote up this definition, IMHO.)
- Still another website says that ground squirrels can weigh between 1 and 10 pounds, whereas chipmunks are usually under a pound (not based on the amount of the sunflower seeds they eat near my bird feeders). Good luck getting them to hold still while you weigh them.
- Ground squirrels can live between 5-10 years while chippers only 2-5 years. This one isn’t the most reliable visual indicator, unless you have lots and lots and lots of time. (Allyson’s grandpa (Jan’s dad) used to tell her “chipper” stories when she was little. The story was different each time, which kept Allyson coming back for more.)
- Their tails can be an indicator all other things being equal. Ground squirrel tails tend to be longer and bushier than the chipmunks “shorter and not nearly as fluffy” tails. Chipmunks will sometimes run with the tails straight up or out behind them.
- Habitat can be a big differentiator as well; except we saw all of the critters below in nearly the same habitats. None held still long enough and we didn’t wait around to see to know if they ran up trees (ground squirrels) or not (chipmunks). Chipmunks tend not to climb trees, but climb over fallen trees. Ground squirrels have no qualms at about climbing trees, or so we are told.
- Though not really a visual differentiator, hibernation patterns differ slightly: chipmunks wake up every few days to eat during colder months while ground squirrels can go for longer periods of time between winter feedings.
Well, there it is. Clear as mud, right?
You are all ready now to hit the jump and put some visuals to that primer!
Now you know everything I know about chipmunks and ground squirrels. I suppose there are regional differences. Some people call the same animal a chipmunk while others call it a ground squirrel. Talk amongst yourselves. It’s OK to share answers for the quiz at the end.
This is a Lodgepole Chipmunk (Tamias speciosus). We found this little one at Kings Canyon NP, scampering around the Giant Sequoias. Imagine the irony when one of the smallest furry critters lives among the world’s largest trees.
Remember the criteria above: stripey head, non-bushy tail. Simple (well, not really) I say. It’s a chipmunk. Chipmunks have stripes that run up their entire bodies, heads included. Ground squirrels only have striping on their backs or sides. The Lodgepole has a stripey head, aka. chipmunk.
A similar looking chipmunk is the Least Chipmunk (Neotamias minimus).
Jan and I saw this one at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. You know, the mashed potatoes sculpture from the Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie from the 1970’s. This critter was running along the walkway, between the giant boulders that had fallen from the Tower. The Least Chipmunk has brighter orange/brown sides similar to a Lodgepole. The ear shape is a bit different: The Least has almost cute rounded ears, where the Lodgepole ears sit up straight and tall and a bit pointed (not quite Vulcan). The Least Chipmunk is the smallest, and most widespread chipmunk in North America.
The Lodgepole and the Least chipmunks both have stripey faces and multi-striped backs. The Lodgepole has much more striking colors on its face. Neither is very much longer than a smartphone, even when its tail is fully stretched out.
Both the Least and the Lodgepole are world class at scampering (Is that an Olympic sport yet?). Some of the only things harder to photograph than small birds in the woods, are chipmunks and ground squirrels, or whatever you want to call them. National Parks have more than their fair share in my humble opinion. In fact, I had to re-identify a few from past trips once I had the primer above.
Out of the corner of my eye, and through the viewfinder trying to track one for a photo, they all look alike. Thankfully, the camera freezes them so I can tell them apart later. Remember, until I can see them on the big screen at home, they all look the same on the tiny LCD on the back of my camera. To catch these little critters on “film”, it helps to have the title condition: ADHLAS — Attention Deficit Hey Look A Squirrel! (Borrowed from the Frazz comic strip by Jef Mallett.) Admittedly, now I have to add ADHLAC for chipmunks.
OK, ready for some ground squirrels?
This is a Douglas Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii). Notice there’s no “ground” involved in its name. Why it’s not called a ground squirrel, I’m not sure. While a Douglas Squirrel does indeed have “squirrel” in its name, it is only slightly bigger than the others and has very similar activities. Oh, and it does like to climb trees. I guess that’s where the “squirrel” part comes from.
The Douglas Squirrel and Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis) both have strong side stripes. The Douglas has a single dark stripe down their side separating their back and belly colors. The Golden-mantled has two dark stripes sandwiching a white stripe. (think Oreo cookies)
Of course, the Golden-mantled has, well, a golden-colored head or mantle. The Department of Obvious Names (DON) was working after hours again. Both squirrels have white eye rings. And they both . . . are you ready for this . . . climb trees. (squirrel definition above)
The California Ground Squirrel (Otospermophilus
beecheyi) is a bit larger than the others, but not quite the size of the small Eastern Grey squirrels (sorry, no photo this time) cleaning up under the bird feeders at Wildlife Intrigued’s satellite office.
Jan and I had just seen the lower cascade of Yosemite Falls and were walking “downstream” through the other tourists trying to get “upstream” to the falls. There was a group of three little old ladies taking a rest on a log at the edge of the trail. They were chatting away, laughing, and not really paying attention to the wildlife in their immediate vicinity. Jan saw a few California Ground Squirrels running around, looking for snacks the tourists may have dropped. She spotted this one, sneaking up on one of the old ladies. At first the squirrel just seemed curious, but when it spied the unattended Starbucks cup, it went in for the kill. We warned the old ladies they were about to lose their daily caffeine. They turned to see what was going on and began laughing even harder as the California Ground Squirrel grabbed the empty cup and started to run off with it. I’ve not seen a grey squirrel go after a Starbucks cup like this California Ground Squirrel did a few seconds after Jan took this photo. No stripes on its head and a bushy tail (squirrel).
Confused? I certainly hope not. Remember, stripes are a key differentiator. Tail size and shape is another. In 1/1000th of a second, the amount of time they actually sit still, those may be the only features you are able to make out. If it happens to run up a tree, you can eliminate half of the chipmunk vs. ground squirrel conundrum. Please address your letters to the Intrigued Legal Department.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more photos, please visit the links below.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for most of the photos in this article.
Bonus photos to try your new found identification skills. The answers are directly below each photo, no quiz involved.
…Lodgepole chipmunk (see more here)
…Least chipmunk (see more here)
…Douglas squirrel (see more here)
…California ground squirrel (see more here)
…Golden-mantled ground squirrel (see more here)
Wildlife Intrigued 
Fantastic chipmunk and ground squirrel photos. I love the squirrel with the gray Rocker hair. Rock On! Did the tour guide tell you to wear bells and carry pepper spray, and explain that black bear poop has lots of seed and berry fragments, whereas, grizzly poop often has little bells and smells like pepper?
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Yes, when we were at Yellowstone. But that’s another story entirely. (actually have that opening written for a future story).
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Now that you mention it, I think I recall some exchange about it some time back.
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It also reminds me of the story of a little girl explaining her scouting project to some stuffy businessmen waiting for a plane, just what different droppings look like. When one of the men asks what a specific pile of scat is, she replies, “Mister, you really don’t know s#!t do you?”
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That’s a good one, also.
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…and they keep on coming ha!
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You two are on a roll with your bear jokes!
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One of my favorites is from The Benny Hill Show. A pretty young woman is talking to him and says something like “…and they say I should go out in nature. Can you imagine me walking around in the woods with a Bear Behind?” Benny Hill makes a great face. If you’re a Benny Hill fan you probably know that scene.
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I am/was a huge Benny Hill fan and used to be able to manually tune our console TV to watch it on KPLR when I was admittedly waaaay to young for some of those skits ha. Hill’s Angels made quite an impression on me in those early years. No way in hell that show could ever get off the ground in today’s cupcake society.
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I was thinking you had to be a BH fan. You can’t have good clean, sexy funny stuff these days. LGBQTUVWXYZ smut or be damned.
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I find very few people even know who BH was, much less can reference one of his shows so absolute kudos to you! I have to chuckle to myself whenever the progressive logic gets twisted like a pretzel… can’t define what a women is until you decry unequal pay, you can’t tell me what to do with my body vs we demand you get a shot, it’s a clump of cells, but considered an additional life in a murder trial, cells do not mean life, but one single oxygen molecule means life on Mars, you are a fascist unless you do what the government tells you, guns are bad except for my security guards, proclamations of climate change killing the planet by people flying to Davos, plagiarism is bad unless you are Harvard administrator, gun crime is destroying our society while we let violet criminals out on cashless bail… I could go on but we all know the double standards.
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Do as they say, not as they do. I read there was a “More Cows! Less Climate Change” group who presented papers on how we need more cows to fight climate change at COP28. No bull! Maybe you need to do your part and get some cows. They might just trample those pesky varmints while waging cow war on climate change.
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Exactly, I should probably mention I see this twisted logic on all sides – “I say what serves my agenda, you do as I say, don’t ever investigate what I’m doing and if you do I’ll buy my way out of it” is pretty much the mantra of the day. Fortunately, we are well above carbon neutrality with our lush green forest – I should sell the elites my extra carbon tokens (are you listening Taylor Swift and the owners of the 800 private jets that landed in Vegas last weekend) and get rich quick. I’ll see if we can get our neighbor down the street to add more cows, too messy for our small yard ha!
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I remember the Benny Hill show with the theme song that sounded like it was played on a kazoo.
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That’s the one.
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Very cool 👏👏👏
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Thanks Ted. They are cute through the camera, but pesky in gardens around here.
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I agree. The scourge of rock walls. None at all down here.
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I am sure Brad and I can send you a few thousand if you want.
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I would ‘almost’ say yes 😁😁. However think of the food supply for our toxic snakes, alligators, etc. Build a big food supply and well, we are already out numbered 🤣😂🤣
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Didn’t think of that – there’d be some pretty plump snakes and gators down there if we did that. I keep telling Linda how much I appreciate snakes around our house for their ability to keep the Chip population down…she does NOT agree ha! I’ll hold off on the shipment .. for now.
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Pesky is a rather polite way of saying it.
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Family audience of readers.
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Ha
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Amazing chipmunks! We have them too but I had no luck finding them. Excellent series of ground squirrels. It’s incredible that there are so many different types of them. Your photos are great, I enjoyed looking at them!
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Thanks very much Kaya. I found out this is only a sampling of the chipmunks or ground squirrels available. Ours are hibernating now, but I expect them out and about very soon as greens are starting to poke through the ground.
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…and then they shall bear witness to my vengeance!
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Nice series and informative, Brad. A gallery of m(o)unks.
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Thanks Jerry. I was surprised when I realized that all of those little furry things skittering around weren’t all the same species. Just as challenging as small songbirds to photograph.
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I can tell you this: I do NOT want to meet a 10-pound ground squirrel, I don’t care how cute and fuzzy he is!
Excellent collection of photos, Brad, and good job trying to explain the unexplainable. Did you happen to notice whether all the species you saw could stand on their hind legs for an extended time?
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I didn’t notice Sam. I’ll have to review the photos to see if any “stood” still long enough. I’ve seen chippers in my backyard stand up while they are working on sunflower seeds. And quite possibly the one that stole the Starbucks cup in the story stood up, but can’t recall (hadn’t had caffeine myself that morning).
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Not sure about all the ones in Brad’s collection, but I can assure you the Eastern Chipmunks here stand a significant amount of time on their hind legs while they are giving me the finger with their front paws!
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Heh, they do have attitude!
Just FYI, your blog now (for the past couple of weeks) has a problem with Wonderful WordPress, similar to many of the other WP bloggers I follow. In your case, I can Like your original post, and I can Reply to make a comment. But I cannot Like your Reply to my comment (regardless of whether or not I have hit the WP login button). Probably something we have to just live with… but wanted you to know I do read and appreciate your Replies!
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Thanks for the info Sam, absolutely no worries! I will take a look at that and see if it might be something on my end. I am in a nonstop battle with WP at the moment, but mostly with my replies and likes on other WP sites. Says I am never logged in, always prompts for me to become a follower and about 50% of the time it never displays my comments or forces me to do a full WP login again which then causes havoc on any other WP sites I go to and even de-auths me from my own WP admin accounts. I have even started copying my comment exactly and trying to submit it again if I do not see it show up under the post. If I get the “sorry, duplicate comment” error I know it at least went somewhere on the site – most probable the pending or worse, spam comment area. My likes directly from the email notification rarely takes and usually have to press the like button again (twice more usually) to get WP to visually recognize it – can’t tell if is just not taking it or it is causing multiple “liked” emails on their end and just not telling me. Then on at least two sites I am getting Nonce (number used once) errors when trying to submit a comment. I was actually planning to have a general post which details all the problems I am having in the hopes it wasn’t just me. I thought I could give up all this IT frustration when I retired – nope hehehehe.
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I’ve been keeping screenshots of various websites, I’ll forward to you. You can test to see if you get the same results. I know it is in the nature of the beast for programmers to continually want to improve things… and I also know that there is a level of complexity in any software package where an “instantaneous”, or on-the-fly, rate of change is no longer supportable. WP may have reached their limit.
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That would be great. I definitely have high expectations for software houses and contrary to our politicians you can’t expect to pull a miner out of a shaft and set them in front of a terminal…funny, they never offer up that they could become politicians. One of my many roles through my career was reviewing outsourced code – I have a wall of shame from that role (favorite was a header section that defined ONE 1; TWO 2; THREE 3; etc. because I told them I didn’t want to see ANY number constants in their code). I am sure Brad has similar stories. First thing I would love to ask WP is who maintains their “test harness algorithms” and if they are written before any production code is made. As you say though.. it is the never ending battle of time to market.
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Great photos of these endearing animals, Brad (I know people who have them dig up their gardens tend to not call them that!). It also took me a while to tell chipmunks from ground squirrels and I still can’t tell the different chipmunks apart. I think your gorgeous Douglas Squirrel is actually considered a tree squirrel and not a ground squirrel (see the following online article: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/douglas-s-squirrel.htm)
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Wow, Muir had a way with words…”He is the mocking-bird of squirrels” That is a pretty descriptive representation as Mocks drive us equally made in the field (not just the chatter, but their deception in tricking us into thinking they are something they are not ha). Now I need to figure out how I can use “sputtering little bolt of life, luxuriating in quick oxygen and the woods” in a future post..fantastic.
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He definitely had a way with words. I think it’s because he spent so much time in nature, which is the greatest inspiration.
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Bonus points if you can.
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Tanja, that very well could be the case with the Douglas. We only ever saw them cavorting with ground squirrels and chipmunks. Guilt by association perhaps? Sounds like I might need Intrigued to send me on another assignment to gather more photo evidence. Thanks for helping with the ground squirrel vs. Chipmunk discussion.
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