Description: Cliff Chipmunks (Neotamias dorsalis) are medium sized, dark-colored chipmunks with indistinct darker and lighter stripes on the back. The dark stripe down the center of the back is more distinct than the lateral stripes. Stripes on the face are distinct brown and white. The body colors are variable, but they always are dark except for the feet, which are tinged with yellowish. The head and body are about 5-inches long, and the tail is about 4 inches long.

There are several subspecies of Cliff Chipmunks. In much of Nevada, we have Grinnell's Cliff Chipmunks (Neotamias dorsalis grinnelli), but in eastern Nevada along the border with Utah and Arizona (down to Gold Butte National Monument), we have Utah Cliff Chipmunks (Neotamias dorsalis utahensis). In Arizona, look for Arizona Cliff Chipmunks (Neotamias dorsalis dorsalis). Most people ignore the subspecies distinction and just call them Cliff Chipmunks.

This species lives at middle and higher elevations in the mountains north and east of Las Vegas in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) and higher Life Zones. Look for them in the Sheep Range (Desert National Wildlife Range), Zion, and the Grand Canyon.

In the Las Vegas area, only chipmunks have stripes on the face, and chipmunks are equally at home on the ground and in the trees.

True to their name, look for Cliff Chipmunks in cliffy places like Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon, and like other chipmunks, these little criminals like to steal your food.

In most places, Cliff Chipmunks live in the Pinyon-Juniper zone, but around Las Vegas, an unusual population of Cliff Chipmunks lives at higher elevations in the Ponderosa Pine zone at Hidden Forest in the Sheep Range, and another unusual population (odd vocalizations, peculiar pine-free habitat) lives in the Virgin Mountains of Gold Butte National Monument.