🐿️ How does a chipmunk spend the winter?

The chipmunk stuffs its cheeks full of acorns until they puff out. Let's peek into a day in the life of this hardworking little forest friend.

📷 A chipmunk nibbling a plant with its front paws. Count the stripes on its back!

What kind of animal is the chipmunk?

The Siberian chipmunk is a small animal often seen in the mountains and forests of Korea. It is easy to recognize by the five black stripes running down its back. It is different from the red squirrel, which is bigger with darker fur. Chipmunks spend most of their time darting quickly along the ground and between low branches.

Inside a chipmunk's cheeks are stretchy cheek pouches. It fills them with acorns, chestnuts and seeds, then carries them back to a storeroom in its burrow. Some of the nuts it hides here and there are forgotten and sprout into new trees, so chipmunks are sometimes called the forest's little gardeners.

When the cold winter comes, the chipmunk hibernates in its burrow. But it doesn't sleep the whole time. Every now and then it wakes up, nibbles a little of its stored food, and goes back to sleep. That's why it works extra hard gathering nuts in autumn.

🔍 Things to observe

• Count how many stripes are on its back.
• Watch how it uses its front paws like hands when it eats.
• Put photos of a chipmunk and a red squirrel side by side and compare their size and fur color.

🖍️ Tips for drawing together with your child

• The key is a round head, a chubby body and a tail almost as big as the body.
• Color the body brown, then draw black stripes down the back to make a chipmunk.
• Put an acorn in its front paws, and Little Acorn will jump for joy.

💬 Let's talk about it

• If you were a chipmunk, what would you save up for the winter?
• What happens to the acorns that get forgotten?

🏪 In the game: Little Acorn