Chipmunk is the common name for any small squirrel-like rodent species of the genus Tamias in the family Sciuridae. Around 25 species fall under this name, mainly in North America, although one species is native to Eurasia. Etymology and taxonomy Tamias is Latin for "storer," a reference to the animals' habit of collecting and storing food for winter use. Twenty-five species belong to this family, with one species in northeastern Asia, one in eastern North America, and the rest native to western North America. The name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk" (from the Odawa word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel"; c.f. Ojibwe, ajidamoo). However, the earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary (from 1842) is "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck", and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squ

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z # TAGS