Townsend's chipmunk

Townsend's chipmunk, Neotamias townsendii, is a rodent of the squirrel family Sciuridae that lives in the forests of the Pacific Northwest of North America, from extreme southwestern British Columbia through western Washington and western Oregon. It is named after John Kirk Townsend, an early nineteenth-century ornithologist. It is a large chipmunk: adults can measure about 36 centimetres from nose to the tip of the tail. Across much of its range it is the only chipmunk present, and it can be recognised by a tail that is grayish above and reddish below and by brown colouring with indistinct tawny stripes. It hibernates where winters are harsh but can stay active all year in milder parts of its range. It is omnivorous, eating many plants and insects and even birds' eggs; in summer and early autumn it takes blackberries, salal berries and thimbleberries, and in late autumn acorns, huckleberries, maple seeds, thistle seeds, grain seeds, grass, roots and conifer seeds. In the Oregon Coast Range it reaches higher densities where shrubbery, especially salal, is dense.