Eastern Chipmunks Gathering Food

By the end of this month or the beginning of November, most Eastern Chipmunks will have gathered and stored their winter food supply underground in a special chamber which they will visit every two or three weeks throughout the winter, grabbing a bite to eat.  Up to half a bushel of nuts and seeds can be stored here, which means many trips from the food source to the larder.  In order to minimize the number of trips, chipmunks  cram their cheek pouches as full as possible.  The contents that researchers have found in one chipmunk’s two pouches include the following (each entry represents the contents of one chipmunk’s pouches):   31 kernels of corn, 13 prune pits, 70 sunflower seeds, 32 beechnuts, 6 acorns.

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