Friday, November 25, 2011

What is the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel?

The animals we know as chipmunks and squirrels are all members of the squirrel family. In fact, chipmunks are actually a type of squirrel - a ground squirrel. Prairie dogs are also ground squirrels. What makes a chipmunk a chipmunk is morphological. If it looks like a chipmunk, people tend to call it a chipmunk. There is really no set distinction between chipmunks and other ground squirrels save the recent species divergence on the evolutionary tree. That is to say, chipmunks are more closely related to other chipmunks than other ground squirrels but not by that much. Google a picture of a ground squirrel and you will find they look very much like the animals you know as chipmunks. I am going to assume that the animal you are referring to as a squirrel is in fact a tree squirrel. Tree squirrel differ from ground squirrels morphologically and behaviorally due to their arboreal (tree-dwelling) lifestyle.What is the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel?
chinpmuncks sing and dance!!! lol u know alvin in the chinpmunks. get it?? lol

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What is the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel?
One difference between tree squirrels and chipmunks is that chipmunks have internal cheek pouches in which they can temporarily store food as they forage on the ground -- using them like pockets -- while tree squirrels don't (but ground squirrels do).

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about 15 minutes on gas mark 6
Chipmunks live on the ground and are generally smaller.
chipmunk does not contains the same letters as squirrel....
Size. Habitat. Probably other morphological things that you could locate with about 5 minutes on a search engine.
Rocky and Bullwinkle vs. Chip and Dale..who would win?
By sight the easiest thing to identfy them is their tail. Squirrels have a bushy tail that they curl up behind them, while chipmunks have a thinner, straighter tail. Squirrels are also bigger than chipmunks, and can be either red or gray, chipmunks are usually red.

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