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Tamias is Greek for "storer," a reference to the animals' habit of collecting and storing food for winter use. Twenty-five species belong to the genus by this name, with one species in northeastern Asia, one in eastern North America, and the rest native to western North America. The name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk" (from the Odawa word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel"; (c.f. Ojibwe, ajidamoo). However, the earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary (from 1842) is "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck", and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels," possibly in reference to the sound they make. They are also called "striped squirrels" or "ground squirrels", though the name "ground squirrel.

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16y ago

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