Endangered
Palmer's chipmunk
Neotamias palmeri
Palmer's chipmunk is a rodent in the family Sciuridae, endemic to Spring Mountains in southern Nevada.
Appearance
Palmer's chipmunk resembles other chipmunks in that it has solid black and white stripes that run down its body dorsally.
Total body length is 210–223 millimetres (8.3–8.8 in), with a tail of 86.5–101.5 millimetres (3.41–4.00 in).
Range and habitat
Palmer's chipmunk is found only in the Spring Mountains of Clark County, southern Nevada. This species has been found to have the highest abundance within white fir and mixed conifer dense region of the Spring Mountains. Palmer's chipmunks typically prefer ground habitats as opposed to living off the forest floor in trees.
Palmer's chipmunks are limited to "sky islands" that are mountainous habitats that are surrounded by other lower elevation inhospitable habitats.
GBIF currently lists 302 occurrence points. Those points follow where people logged the taxon — museum drawers and surveys included — not a closed range boundary.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
This species is determined to be omnivores, they are known to eat local fruits, grass, insects, fungus, and the seeds of other conifers. Palmer's chipmunk is a primary prey species for a number of animals in its habitat.
Palmer's chipmunks have been observed to forage for food in groups. Some members of a group will forage and feed while others will assess risk and keep watch for predators or other danger. After a month or so, the pups have developed a smooth fur coat and begin to move in and out of the nest.
In crisis
It is primarily threatened by habitat loss. The species has been classified as endangered by the IUCN.
Palmer's chipmunk is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Palmer's chipmunk, Wikidata item Q21731100 and GBIF occurrence geography. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
