Eutamias speciosus speciosus (Merriam)
Lodgepole Chipmunk
This chipmunk was characteristic of the most boreal parts of the San Gabriel Mountains. It was recorded from 6800 feet elevation at Big Pines, to an altitude of approximately 9800 feet near Mt. San Antonio, and was common where coniferous timber was interspersed with snowbrush chaparral. In upper Icehouse Canyon and near Telegraph Peak these chipmunks were associated with lodgepole pines and chinquapin, and one mile east of Mt. San Antonio individuals were often observed in thickets of manzanita. This chipmunk usually shunned pure stands of coniferous timber except as temporary forage ground.
On Blue Ridge these chipmunks used the uppermost stems of snowbrush as vantage points, and when disturbed ran nimbly over thorny surfaces of the brush in seeking refuge in the tangled growth.
In early November of 1951, these animals were not yet in hibernation on Blue Ridge. They were noted on November 6, after the season's first snows had melted; on November 13, however, a cold wind with drifting fog kept most of them under cover, and only two were noted in the course of the day.
Specimen examined.—Los Angeles County: 1 mi. S and 2 mi. E Big Pines, 8100 ft., 1.
Eutamias merriami merriami (J. A. Allen)
Merriam Chipmunk
The lower limit of the range of this species, on the coastal face of the range, is roughly coincident with that of manzanita—that is to say, it begins in the main belt of chaparral above the lower foothills. E. merriami seems to reach maximum abundance amid the granite talus, and scrub oak and Pseudotsuga growth at the upper edge of the chaparral association. It was absent, however, from all but the lower fringe of the yellow pine forest association.
On the desert slope merriami was partial to rocky areas in the pinyon-juniper association but was also in the black oak woods on the Ball Flat fire road near Jackson Lake. Nowhere was Eutamias merriami and E. speciosus observed on common ground.