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The cliff chipmunk (''Neotamias dorsalis'') is a small, bushy-
The chipmunks' size varies from , and they weigh an average of . These small creatures live to a staggering years. The chipmunks are brown on their underside and gray on the back, with white stripes on their face.
tail
The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...
ed squirrel that typically lives along cliff walls or boulder fields bordering Pinyon-juniper woodlands in the Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau.
As American settlement i ...
and Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
(commonly spotted in northern Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
to Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
). Cliff chipmunks are very agile, and can often be seen scaling steep cliff walls. Cliff chipmunks do not amass body fat
Adipose tissue (also known as body fat or simply fat) is a loose connective tissue composed mostly of adipocytes. It also contains the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of cells including preadipocytes, fibroblasts, Blood vessel, vascular endothel ...
as the more common ground squirrel
Ground squirrels are rodents of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) that generally live on the ground or in burrows, rather than in trees like the tree squirrels. The term is most often used for the medium-sized ground squirrels, as the larger ones ar ...
does. They create caches of food which they frequent during the cold winter months.
Description
The chipmunks' size varies from , and they weigh an average of . These small creatures live to a staggering years. The chipmunks are brown on their underside and gray on the back, with white stripes on their face.
Habitat
The cliff chipmunk nests near cliffs in pinyon-juniper woodlands hence its name "cliff chipmunk". They are found at higher altitudes such as above sea level. A common destination for spotting the cliff chipmunk is the cliffs of theGrand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile ().
The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...
. The cliff chipmunk is active mostly during the day, therefore easy to spot. The chipmunk's diet consists of juniper berries, pine seeds, and acorns.
See also
* Gray-footed chipmunk * ''Neotamias
''Neotamias'' is a genus of chipmunks within the tribe Marmotini of the squirrel family. It contains 23 species, which mostly occur in western North America. Along with '' Eutamias'', this genus is often considered a subgenus of ''Tamias
''Ta ...
''
* Sciuridae
Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q24662786, from2=Q1762104 Neotamias Rodents of the United States Rodents of Mexico Fauna of the Western United States Mammals described in 1855 Taxa named by Spencer Fullerton Baird