I recall that as a child, I would see chipmunks around Kootenay Lake, that is, right down to the valley bottom. Now, I only see them much higher in the mountains. David Nagorsen’s book, Rodents & Lagomorphs of British Columbia (2005), suggests that such a variation in altitude range is largely a result of competition with related species (p. 186).
The three pictures of the Yellow–pine Chipmunk below were taken at an elevation of about 1570 metres on the same jaunt into Kokanee Glacier Park that produced the pictures of the Solitary Sandpiper.
