Siberian Chipmunk

The Siberian chipmunk is the only chipmunk native outside North America. Eutamias sibiricus, still called Tamias sibiricus in EU and UK law, lives on forest floors, rocky outcrops and taiga from central Russia to China, Korea and northern Japan. It measures 18 to 25 cm including the tail, weighs 50 to 150 g depending on the season, and has five dark and four light stripes down a yellow-brown back. It is active by day, stores food, and spends the winter in torpor, waking every few weeks to eat. In captivity it lives about 6 to 10 years.

Pet releases in Europe since the 1970s produced 22 wild populations by 2013, 11 of them in France, and near Paris the chipmunks were estimated to produce about 8.5 times more Lyme-infected ticks than native rodents. Since August 2016 the EU has listed it as an invasive species: keeping, breeding, selling, transporting and importing are banned, apart from pets already owned at listing, and England and Wales apply the same rules. In the United States it is not federally restricted, but California, Connecticut and Georgia restrict or ban pet chipmunks, so check your state's rules before searching for one for sale.