Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus) responses in home range to artificial food supplementation.

Abstract

We were interested in what influences home ranges of eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). We hypothesized that chipmunks would extend and shift their home range in response to an additional abundant food source. We mapped the home ranges of 4 individually marked chipmunks for five days in July of 2016. Once the home range was known, we placed an abundant source of black oil sunflower seeds outside of the known home range. Three of the chipmunks with burrows <65 m away responded and shifted their home range. The size of home ranges for those three animals increased. We also found increase in overlap of home ranges after manipulation, as well as increased aggression. The fourth chipmunk, whose burrow was 143m away did not respond.