Chipmunks as Predators

Also see Predator ID, Squirrels, and Cats, Raccoons and Other Four-Legged Creatures

From: bookfanaticef-bluebird"at"yahoo.com [mailto:bookfanaticef-bluebird"at"yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: A couple of questions? a couple anecdotes on dogs & chicpmunks
...

As for chipmunks, they can be predators just as bad as squirrels (and I have seen chipmunks in trees before), though a predator guard that keeps squirrels out would likely keep them out too. Squirrels are well-known for raiding bird nests containing either eggs or nestlings when they can get them. I would go for a guard that more of a baffle or something & not something like a hole excluder--chipmunks are so much smaller than squirrels, I don't think you could put a hole guard on the box small enough to exclude chipmunks without also excluding your bluebirds. Other people would probably have a better idea--we don't have chipmunks here. But here's a chipmunk story: I worked with a biologist last summer who was doing some mist-netting & banding, and he told me that in some place he had worked before (West Virginia, maybe), they'd had lots of chipmunks running around, but nobody thought anything of it at first--none of them had experie! nce with chipmunks. So, in order to catch understory birds like wrens and certain warblers, they set the bottom of the net to come to about halfway between their knees & the ground. Pretty standard practice. Then, on one check of the nets, they discovered a bird in the bottom "rung" that had been attacked, torn apart & partially eaten--but didn't look like it had been attacked by another bird. It was a mystery, but they thought it was a fluke--likely a raccoon a fox came by, saw the bird struggling or hanging in the net & decided to have a snack, but couldn't get the bird out. It happens once in a while, but pretty rarely. Then another bird, in a net somewhere farther off was killed the same way. They had no idea what predator or other animal could be common enough that they would lose 2 birds the same way on 1 net check on 1 morning. So then, they came across yet a third bird, in another net, with the culprit still there--it ! was chipmunks! The cute little stripey guys were munching on the netted birds. After that, they moved the bottom of the net much higher--not quite to their waists--out of easy reach of the chipmunks. They didn't catch nearly as many of the understory birds, but more importantly, they didn't lose any more birds in the nets, either.
Elizabeth Farley
Gainesville, FL

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