Yellow-cheeked chipmunk

The yellow-cheeked chipmunk, Neotamias ochrogenys, also called the redwood chipmunk, is a rodent of the squirrel family Sciuridae that is found only along the coast of northern California. It is the largest species in its genus, with a total length of 233 to 297 millimetres including a tail of 97 to 130 millimetres. The coat is a dark tawny olive with five dark stripes along the body, the central stripe along the spine being the most prominent, and three on the head, where the stripe through the eye has pale stripes on either side. Its range is a coastal strip no more than 40 kilometres wide, from just north of Bodega Bay in Sonoma County to the Eel River in Humboldt County, at altitudes up to 1,280 metres in humid coniferous forest with shrubby undergrowth. It is secretive and rarely seen but has a shrill double-syllable chuck-chuck call. It feeds on seeds, fruits, fungi, acorns and stoneseed capsules and probably stores some food in its cheek pouches. Its population is steady and it faces no particular threats.