The chipmunk, like the squirrel, has a habit of burying enough food to last all winter. Although Chipmunks hibernate, they periodically dip into their stash of food throughout the winter instead of storing fat.
Chipmunks are wonderful collectors of nuts, berries, and grain. A chipmunk never makes the mistake of trying to store something that will get rotten. It collects only food that it knows will stay fresh over the winter.
The small animal buries these supplies of food in different places, except for the biggest pile of all. The biggest pile of food, enough to last all winter, is always buried right beneath its bed.
One chipmunk’s nest was found to contain 32 quarts of nuts. This means that tiny animals forget where they have buried some of their smaller hoards.
When this happens, the next spring the forgotten food grows into plants and trees, which keep the forest green.
I have witnessed my chipmunk empty its nest of food that has spoiled.
We were camping and I forgot a package of M&M peanuts in mt bag in the back of our tent. II heard some noise during the night and I clapped against the tent. I went back to sleep and in the morning I found the M&Me package there but empty.
There were 40 M&M’s in the package. I thought the chipmunk had worked all night carrying the M&M’s away, but after reading your answer it made more sense.