Chipmunks are a familiar sight throughout Indiana, often darting across woodland trails, disappearing beneath stone walls, or carrying acorns through backyard gardens. Their quick movements and striped coats make them easy to recognize, but almost everything that happens after they vanish from view remains a mystery. Beneath Indiana’s forests, parks, neighborhoods, and rural woodlots lies an elaborate underground world that most people never notice. Hidden chipmunk burrows are far more sophisticated than simple holes in the ground, serving as secure homes, food storage vaults, nurseries, and winter shelters.
Eastern Chipmunks are found across nearly all of Indiana, thriving in hardwood forests, suburban landscapes, creek valleys, and nature preserves. Although they spend much of the day gathering food above ground, a large part of their lives unfolds underground inside carefully engineered tunnel systems. Every entrance is strategically placed, every chamber has a purpose, and every tunnel reflects generations of adaptation that allow these small mammals to survive changing seasons and constant threats from predators.
Many Indiana residents walk within a few feet of active burrows every day without ever realizing they are there. The entrances blend naturally into the landscape, revealing almost nothing about the remarkable structures hidden below.
A Tiny Entrance Leads to a Much Larger World
The opening of a chipmunk burrow is surprisingly small…