In much of eastern America, there is only one species of chipmunk, the aptly named eastern chipmunk. In western America, however, there are a large number of different species and many of them look alike. In some areas, the species don’t overlap so you can make an ID just from its location and habitat. But in areas where they overlap, there are some general coloration traits between the species but definitive identification is difficult. Apparently the penis bone of the males is the only way to be sure, but I don’t get to know my wildlife subjects that well.
These pictures were all taken in Wyoming in either Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Parks. The ranges of yellow-pine, least, and Uinta chipmunks overlap in this area. I suspect most of these are yellow-pine chipmunks but I don’t know for sure.
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It's Not an Addiction, I Can Stop Anytime I Want!
It will not surprise regular visitors to know that on my very first hiking trip to the Tetons, on my very first trail, smack dab in some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States, I started taking pictures of chipmunks right away. This was one of several chipmunks eating seeds on the rocky shore of Colter Bay.
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Want Some?
A generous chipmunk in the Tetons offers me a seed pod in the fall of 2005. Taken on the trail to Death Canyon, one of my favorite hikes in the park. One of my (many) favorite pictures taken on this trip, my first to the Tetons.
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Good Standing
The Lakeshore Trail was the first trail I hiked in the Tetons, a gentle loop that includes some of the shores of Colter Bay. There were a few small grasses that had poked up through the colorful rocks that line the shore, and a couple of chipmunks were availing themselves of the seeds. Standing up on its tiptoes to get the higher seeds, you get a nice view of how long and slender chipmunks really are.
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In American football, a checkdown pass is when the quarterback attempts to complete a short, accurate pass to a running back or tight end as a last option when the wide receivers are covered. Wikipedia
After watching a black bear mother and her cub on Yellowstone’s Blacktail Plateau Drive, the drive held true to its name and I came across a handful of blacktail bucks making their way across a small meadow. As a small group of us watched and photographed the bucks, this little chipmunk popped up on a stump and proceeded to snack on the grass seeds from its high vantage point. It seemed a much nicer picture than the bucks, and never one to pass up a chance to photograph chipmunks, I switched lenses and crouched down low to take one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
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Hard To Say Goodbye
I grew up in the eastern part of the United States. In the deciduous forests there, eastern gray squirrels and eastern chipmunks are your frequent hiking partners. While the Northwest has many things to offer, one thing I miss is the squirrels and chipmunks. Not that we don’t have them here, just not in the numbers I’d prefer.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that even in parks as magnificent as the Tetons and Yellowstone, I’ll photograph just about every squirrel and chipmunk I come across — which is why no one likes to hike with me. And God help you if I see a newt. The chipmunks in this part of Wyoming are the yellow-pine chipmunk, the Uinta chipmunk, and the least chipmunk, similar but different species to the eastern chipmunks of my youth and the Townsend’s chipmunks of my not-quite-so-youth. |
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Log Lunch
A chipmunk eating on a downed tree along Yellowstone's Storm Point Nature Trail, a favorite of mine for seeing and photographing the park's little creatures.
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