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The Mammals of Texas -
Online Edition Gray-footed Chipmunk
Distribution in Texas. These are forest-dwelling chipmunks and occur in Texas only in the Sierra Diablo and Guadalupe Mountains in the Trans-Pecos region (Culberson County). Habits. Favorite haunts of the gray-footed chipmunk are down logs at the edge of clearings. They occur also in dense stands of mixed timber (oaks, pines, firs) and on brushy hillsides, particularly where crevices in rocks offer retreats. When alarmed, they usually seek seclusion in crevices or underground burrows; occasionally they take to the trees. Their food consists of a variety of items such as acorns, seeds of Douglas fir, currants, gooseberries, mushrooms, green vegetation, and insects. Little is known of their breeding habits. The young are about half-grown in mid-summer and almost full-grown in September and October, but one female taken in August in the Guadalupe Mountains contained four embryos. One litter a year is normal. Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. |
Description. A small, grayish-appearing
squirrel, the upperparts marked with four whitish and
three to five brownish stripes; the nape and shoulders
usually with a distinct wash of smoke gray; dark dorsal
stripes black or brownish black; inner pair of light
stripes smoke gray, outer pair grayish white. External
measurements average: total length, 225 mm; tail, 102 mm;
hind foot, 35 mm.