A chipmunk of northern Asian forests that uses both the ground and trees.
Its yellowish-brown back has alternating dark and light lengthwise stripes. The chest and belly are white.
Siberian chipmunks appear to choose where they hide acorns. In a temperate forest in northeastern China, researchers used Mongolian oak acorns to study how soil moisture related to caching. They tested three settings: small arenas, larger semi-natural enclosures and a field study with free-ranging chipmunks. Across the study, chipmunks cached acorns in wetter soil, and they recovered more artificial caches placed in wetter spots.
Because moist soil can favor oak germination, the authors interpreted this pattern as directed dispersal toward suitable microsites. The result links a chipmunk’s food-storage choices to where oak seeds may be carried through the forest.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern (LC) · Global, species-level assessment
The IUCN global assessment lists the Siberian chipmunk as Least Concern (LC). It was assessed on 11 September 2016, with a stable population trend. The assessment cites a wide distribution and large population, with no detected decline and no known widespread major threats. Separately, the European Union includes the species on its list of invasive alien species of Union concern. The consolidated EU regulation dated 7 August 2025 retains the entry and shows the names Tamias sibiricus and Eutamias sibiricus. The global extinction-risk category and the regional invasive-species designation describe different scopes.