Description: Cliff Chipmunks (Tamias dorsalis) are medium sized, dark-colored chipmunks with indistinct darker and lighter stripes on the back. Stripes on the face are more 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.

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 chipmunk, 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.