I have a love/hate relationship with chipmunks. They are such cheery little animals that are constantly busy. Yet, one house in MI that I lived in they became the bane of my existence. The neighborhood was full of chipmunks. The house backed up to multiple other houses that all had chain-link fences. “My” chipmunk would sit under my window, every Saturday morning-early, and bark at the chipmunks in the other yards. And they would bark back! They were so loud and insistent And they also ate my succulents. But, other than that experience, I really do enjoy watching them gather food and run about.
This is funny because, as established I lived in VT where we have a lot of chipmunks especially in the past year (2020) which for reasons I have since forgotten but led to a HUGE population boom which was so notable that like VPR (our NPR affiliate) picked it up. Let me see if I can dig it up.
Some family drama about chipmunks, so for reasons I am still not sure they really bother my uncle who lives nearby and has been waging war with the chipmunk population in his yard (this consists of getting one of those human traps and dropping them off at the park at ride in the town next over but chipmunks also apparently have a huge (for their size) like range of movement)
as an aside, the other big point of conversation re animal life this time is the influx of bears a population which also spiked and because a lot of non locals were moving up here a lot of concern about people with zero wildlife experience needing to learn to coexist with bears. (bears live near me, a neighbor saw a mom and cub recently with no incident)
I read about black bears while making this post https://realwildlife.substack.com/p/wild-life-american-black-bear and wonder if it's possible, through education, to live alongside? Bears are smart creatures. Reminds me that it's time to take down the bird feeders and leave them all be.
I found VPR coverage! https://www.vpr.org/post/while-vermonters-stay-black-bears-venture-out#stream/0 General consensious as least as far as me and my neighbors go (and for context we're on a 1.5 mile dirt road off another dirt road so are pretty in the woods) is everyone coexists fine we just leave the wildlife alone and like my neighbor who saw the bear cub just kept his distance and it was fine. The coverage mention compost bins and while wildlife getting into trash is definitely something we live with is not an issue we hit with the compost bin.
Thanks, I will listen to this! I really want to coexist with bears. We've never had much trouble with our compost either, just need a bunch of dried leaves to offset the gooey stuff.
Thanks for this! So interesting about the trees' strategies as well, it's all such a moveable feast. Related to the mention of roads, here's a study I found about small mammal avoidance of roads (which I was glad to know about, I've always wondered): https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/89/4/895/871210
From Lauren, writing about chipmunks in Michigan:
I have a love/hate relationship with chipmunks. They are such cheery little animals that are constantly busy. Yet, one house in MI that I lived in they became the bane of my existence. The neighborhood was full of chipmunks. The house backed up to multiple other houses that all had chain-link fences. “My” chipmunk would sit under my window, every Saturday morning-early, and bark at the chipmunks in the other yards. And they would bark back! They were so loud and insistent And they also ate my succulents. But, other than that experience, I really do enjoy watching them gather food and run about.
"a sleeping room the size of a basketball" ... love it
It sounds nice, doesn't it? They stuff it full of food and then sleep on a layer of grass and leaves. Not bad, really.
This is funny because, as established I lived in VT where we have a lot of chipmunks especially in the past year (2020) which for reasons I have since forgotten but led to a HUGE population boom which was so notable that like VPR (our NPR affiliate) picked it up. Let me see if I can dig it up.
Some family drama about chipmunks, so for reasons I am still not sure they really bother my uncle who lives nearby and has been waging war with the chipmunk population in his yard (this consists of getting one of those human traps and dropping them off at the park at ride in the town next over but chipmunks also apparently have a huge (for their size) like range of movement)
as an aside, the other big point of conversation re animal life this time is the influx of bears a population which also spiked and because a lot of non locals were moving up here a lot of concern about people with zero wildlife experience needing to learn to coexist with bears. (bears live near me, a neighbor saw a mom and cub recently with no incident)
I read about black bears while making this post https://realwildlife.substack.com/p/wild-life-american-black-bear and wonder if it's possible, through education, to live alongside? Bears are smart creatures. Reminds me that it's time to take down the bird feeders and leave them all be.
I found VPR coverage! https://www.vpr.org/post/while-vermonters-stay-black-bears-venture-out#stream/0 General consensious as least as far as me and my neighbors go (and for context we're on a 1.5 mile dirt road off another dirt road so are pretty in the woods) is everyone coexists fine we just leave the wildlife alone and like my neighbor who saw the bear cub just kept his distance and it was fine. The coverage mention compost bins and while wildlife getting into trash is definitely something we live with is not an issue we hit with the compost bin.
Thanks, I will listen to this! I really want to coexist with bears. We've never had much trouble with our compost either, just need a bunch of dried leaves to offset the gooey stuff.
Found it https://www.vpr.org/post/its-not-just-you-there-actually-are-lot-more-chipmunks-out-there#stream/0
Thanks for this! So interesting about the trees' strategies as well, it's all such a moveable feast. Related to the mention of roads, here's a study I found about small mammal avoidance of roads (which I was glad to know about, I've always wondered): https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/89/4/895/871210
Also, my favorite cassette as a kid, played over and over, was Chipmunk Rock. Here's their version of "Whip It" by Devo !! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-9hvDpce4