Hawks, owls, snakes, foxes, dogs, cats, raccoons, coyotes and weasels all prey on the tiny rodents. For example: Which individuals will be deemed reliable communicators based on the type and frequency of their calls and why?Д¬hipmunks connect with each other through their calls, and those lines of communication may mean the difference between life and death. The new collars were also sensitive enough to record the heartbeats of resting animals, the scratchings of individuals annoyed by parasites and the cries of hungry babies when foraging moms returned to their burrows.Д¬ouchoux is counting on that level of detail to help her answer new questions. Her tiny recorder collars captured more than three times as many calls in 24 hours than she got using traditional research mics to record the same animals during an entire field season.

Using large directional microphones and bulky field recorders, naturalists have recorded individual chipmunk vocalizations for decades, but CouchouxвЂ™s results sketch a sonic portrait of wild chipmunk life with exceptional intimacy. After 24 hours of recording, Couchoux caught the chipmunks again and downloaded the soundtrack of each animalвЂ™s day. She fitted the animals with the tiny collars and released them back into the forest. She trapped 21 of her research subjects-eastern chipmunks-identified by brightly colored ear tags attached earlier. Couchoux took ultra-miniature digital audio recorders developed by a Russian electronics firm for espionage, modified them to be even more lightweight and weatherproof, and mounted them on slender collars.Д¬ouchoux then went to her field site in the Green Mountains Nature Reserve, 17,000-plus acres protected by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. In 2015, she published a study one might describe as James Bond meets Alvin, Simon and Theodore. вЂњTheyвЂ™re not the simple animals people think they are.вЂќДЄs part of her research at the University of Quebec at Montreal, the French biologist has spent hundreds of hours tracking the stylishly striped rodents. These striped rodents take on their world with resolutely individual attitudesД¬HARLINE COUCHOUX IS FASCINATED BY CHIPMUNKS-their survival strategies, their chatter, but most of all, their distinctive personalities.

Cute chipmunk