Competition Between Two Chipmunk Species (Eutamias)

Abstract

Two chipmunk species were studied in the mountains of western Alberta from 1961 to 1965. One species, Eutamias minimus, is largely confined to alpine habitat but also ranges into subalpine forest, where its distribution narrowly overlaps that of E. amoenus. The fundamental niches of the two species, estimated from their habitat distributions elsewhere, are both reduced in western Alberta. Mark and recapture trapping in an overlap zone showed that neither species selected habitat deficient in cover and both species made the same relative use of the available forest. The boundary between the two species was not clearly predictable by obvious habitat features. Eutamias amoenus luteiventris is larger than E. minimus oreocetes and, on an average, has larger litters, earlier maturity, and higher populations density. The two species take similar foods, depending on availability in their respective habitats, but the food consumption of individual minimus is less than that of amoenus. In the laboratory, amoenus was highly successful in interspecific encounters with minimus, regardless of whether or not minimus was a resident of the observation cage. In addition, amoenus dominated minimus in a mixed—species group and minimus exhibited avoidance behavior under such conditions. The highly developed aggressive behavior of Eutamias amoenus enables it to exclude E. minimus from subalpine habitats, but the latter survives in alpine situations where its small size is an adaptation to a reduced food supply.