Early on the morning of April 15, at the edge of Silver Lake in New Hampshire, Mary Holmes noticed a chipmunk with its paw resting on a dead vole. What’s going on in this picture?
Answer
The chipmunk is eating the vole. “With binoculars,” wrote Mary, “I watched the chipmunk pulling red meat out of the vole’s head, chewing it, and going back for more for about five minutes. When a band of blue jays landed in the nearby pines, the chipmunk picked up the vole body and ran off through the woods.”
This carnivorous behavior isn’t surprising. Chipmunks eat insects, frogs and other small creatures; we have heard of one killing an unwitting chickadee at a feeder. In this case, our best guess is that something else killed the vole, and the chipmunk was just taking advantage of the free protein.
This week’s contest winner was Monica Kulp