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Name: Elaine L.
Status: other
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2001254
Question:
My husband has been live-trapping chipmunks all summer and releasing them in a nature preserve less than a mile from our house. I've teased him about their homing instincts so mercilessly that I'm beginning to wonder what the truth is: How far do chipmunks range (and find their way back to their nests)?

Replies:
Most people think they can find their way back within a few miles...I tagged a few that I trapped and let them go about a mile away and they never got back to my knowledge...but others did move in on their territory...there are a bazillion little critters just waiting to take another's cache of food and warmth.

Peter Faletra Ph.D.
Senior Science Advisor
Office of Science
Department of Energy

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