In areas where chipmunks live in high density, those chips and chucks can pack the airwaves. “Chips” (sharp, high-pitched calls) mean the predator is on the ground “chucks” (which are lower pitched, like a stick rapping a hollow wooden block) signal danger from the air. When a foraging chipmunk detects a predator it sounds an alarm, perhaps to warn others to scurry to safety. Hawks, owls, snakes, foxes, dogs, cats, raccoons, coyotes and weasels all prey on the tiny rodents. For example: Which individuals will be deemed reliable communicators based on the type and frequency of their calls and why?Ĭhipmunks connect with each other through their calls, and those lines of communication may mean the difference between life and death. The new collars were also sensitive enough to record the heartbeats of resting animals, the scratchings of individuals annoyed by parasites and the cries of hungry babies when foraging moms returned to their burrows.Ĭouchoux is counting on that level of detail to help her answer new questions. Her tiny recorder collars captured more than three times as many calls in 24 hours than she got using traditional research mics to record the same animals during an entire field season. Using large directional microphones and bulky field recorders, naturalists have recorded individual chipmunk vocalizations for decades, but Couchoux’s results sketch a sonic portrait of wild chipmunk life with exceptional intimacy. After 24 hours of recording, Couchoux caught the chipmunks again and downloaded the soundtrack of each animal’s day. She fitted the animals with the tiny collars and released them back into the forest.

She trapped 21 of her research subjects-eastern chipmunks-identified by brightly colored ear tags attached earlier. Couchoux took ultra-miniature digital audio recorders developed by a Russian electronics firm for espionage, modified them to be even more lightweight and weatherproof, and mounted them on slender collars.Ĭouchoux then went to her field site in the Green Mountains Nature Reserve, 17,000-plus acres protected by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. In 2015, she published a study one might describe as James Bond meets Alvin, Simon and Theodore. “They’re not the simple animals people think they are.”Īs part of her research at the University of Quebec at Montreal, the French biologist has spent hundreds of hours tracking the stylishly striped rodents. These striped rodents take on their world with resolutely individual attitudesĬHARLINE COUCHOUX IS FASCINATED BY CHIPMUNKS-their survival strategies, their chatter, but most of all, their distinctive personalities.

Adorable predators vs their prey