Autumn is harvest time for chipmunks

A Chipmunk’s Winter Sleep (Torpor and Hibernation) In North America, there are 25 species of chipmunks. Most western states have several species of chipmunks; Washington has four. The most common and widespread species in Washington is the Yellow-pine Chipmunk (Tamias amoenus), so named because it is common in the ponderosa (or yellow) pine zone east of the Cascade Mountains crest. The Red-tailed Chipmunk (Tamias ruficaudus) looks about like the Yellow-pine but is slightly larger and longer tailed, and the tail is more intense reddish below. It occurs in the mountains of far northeastern Washington, in Stevens, Pend Oreille, and northern Spokane counties. Its habitat zone is the montane conifer forest and open subalpine zone above that, mostly above the elevation range of the Yellow-pine. The largest Washington chipmunk is the Townsend’s (Tamias townsendii), restricted to the forested western lowlands and similar dense habitats up to treeline in the Olympics and Cascades. It occurs in both forested and op