Cheek pouches make the strategy possible. An eastern chipmunk can carry a substantial load of seeds in a single trip and shuttles repeatedly to its burrow through autumn, building a larder in a dedicated chamber. Reported cache sizes run into thousands of items and several kilograms in productive years.
Underground, the chipmunk enters torpor with lowered body temperature and metabolism, but the bouts are shorter than a groundhog's and are broken by arousals in which the animal eats, urinates and defecates before dropping back. This is larder-hoarding, the opposite of the grey squirrel's scattered caches, and it suits an animal that can defend a single burrow entrance.
A consequence follows for the woodland. Because a chipmunk consolidates seed underground in a chamber rather than distributing it at germination depth, it functions largely as a seed predator rather than a disperser, in contrast with scatter-hoarding tree squirrels that lose enough caches to plant trees.