I was “stump sitting” for a few hours one morning last week and enjoyed watching a chipmunk feeding. The Eastern chipmunk is a small diurnal mammal which feeds primarily on seeds, nuts and fruits. This one was gathering acorns and some seeds. In autumn their primal drive is to gather as much food as possible to cache away for the lean winter months.

Chipmunks den up and basically winter sleep, rousing occasionally to either venture from the den for food or more than likely to eat all the food it has stashed underground.

The constant hurried urge to get food puts the chipmunk at a higher risk of being caught by hawks, weasels, fox or a coyote. The “chippy” has adapted well by having expandable cheek pouches. When it finds a good food source it quickly stuffs its mouth full of seed/nuts and then scurries away to the safety of its den. It doesn’t risk sitting in the open to chew its food, it does so under cover. Its quick storage cheek pouches help increase its survival chances.

White-tailed deer use a bit different quick storage trick. Deer are ruminants, like cows, and have a four-chambered stomach. The first section is called the rumen. It is here that a deer quickly stores its food. Deer do need to be aware of predators, although most of its biggest predators are now absent from their habitats.

Deer stay hidden in a forest or wood lot much of the day and as darkness approaches, will then begin to move to feeding areas. A browsing deer can quickly fill its rumen in about two hours. The rumen holds the swallowed food and with billions of microorganisms there it begins to be digested.

However, a deer once it again reaches a safe hiding spot, will bed down and begin chewing its cud. This cud gets chewed finer to be more easily digested and absorbed. Therefore, the deer’s quick storage trick is its rumen. While sitting quietly in “Penn’s Woods”; either hunting or taking photos, I have watched deer walk in front of me, nip off a few buds, and then “bed down.” While they are lying there, I watch them chewing their cud. I’ve seen this continue for hours.

Birds use quick storage, too. Most birds are prey of either hawks, foxes or other even owls. You already know that birds have no jaws or teeth, but they do eat some rather hard seeds at times. So what do they do?

Song birds, game birds and domestic fowl all have a crop located at the top of their breast (closer to their center of gravity). Birds too need to be alert for predators so many of them feed quickly and swallow seeds/buds/insects and this food initially goes into the crop.

The crop is a thin, elastic type sac that expands to hold food. A mourning dove, for instance, feeds wherever it can find a good food source. If that food source is in a field, it would be more exposed to predators. So feeding as fast as it can and filling the crop, will allow it to get back to seclusion. The crop holds the food temporarily until it travels into the pebble filled gizzard to be ground up and digested.

So pouches, rumens and crops are all examples of animal’s adaptations to help them feed quickly and temporarily store food until they reach safer areas.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Which of these have a special beak to extract pine seeds from the cones? A. pine grosbeak, B. raven, C. white-winged crossbill, D. pine warbler.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: An eagle’s nest is called an aerie.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.