2 December 2023

Chipmunk ID assitance please

Photo of a chipmunkPhoto of a chipmunkPhoto of a chipmunk

Hi all, please can anyone help with the identification of this chipmunk, photographed in April 2023 at private bird feeders in Mesa Antero, Chaffee County, Colorado, at an altitude just over 8000 feet? I think the possible species in the area are Least, Colorado and Uinta. The dark back stripes are blackish but not totally black, and the dark stripe below the lower pale stripe is quite indistinct but definitely present. I thought it looked small, but I’m not very familiar with chipmunks to have a feel for comparative sizes. Any suggestions gratefully received!

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John Archer
British and primarily a birder for many years, I’m finding my trips abroad are becoming increasingly mammal-focussed, and that an ever greater proportion of my “most want to sees” have fur rather than feathers
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2 Comments

  • 3 December 2023
    Moses Swanson the XVI

    Using only the photos on google I reckon it’s a Uinta chipmunk. The eye stripes on the photos from google and your photos match. And the ranges seem to match as well. I’m no expert on rodents but this is just my hypothesis/guess.

    • 6 December 2023
      John Archer

      Thanks Moses. I have to confess that the more I look at photos of the three species on google, the more confused I get! They all seem so variable in colour and the boldness of the various stripes – that’s assuming, of course, that the animals in the photos are all correctly identified in the first place. And I can’t see a consistent variation in the eye stripes either. But I think you’re probably right with the ID – it would fit the altitude as Colorado apparently doesn’t get above 7000 feet where its range overlaps with Uinta.

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