My mom noticed that there's only one chipmunk in her backyard garden/wildlife sanctuary/all-you-can-beak bird buffet this year. She's used to having around nine, like she did last year. An article in National Wildlife Magazine told her the likely reason why.
Chipmunks hibernate for portions of the winter, interrupted by periods of activity, when certain temperature conditions are met. A chipmunk study shows that warm winters interrupt their normal hibernation pattern, which means 80%-90% don't survive the winter.
Since the winter of 2006 to 2007, Frank hasn’t seen chipmunks hibernate regularly at his study site. He fears dire times ahead for the world’s 90 hibernating mammal species. “Very little is known about how climate changes influence mammalian communities, but investigations over the past five years have suggested that species that use hibernation to survive the winter may be particularly sensitive to it,” Frank says. As such, chipmunks serve as one more warning that global warming is closing in.
Yet another party foul by climate change. I don't want to encourage anyone to make another Alvin and the Chipmunks movie but it looks like they need to take on fossil fuels in the next one.