Why Do a Chipmunk's Cheeks Puff Out?

A chipmunk can puff out its cheeks to hold lots of acorns and other thing it likes to eat. That's the way the chipmunk carries its food around. A chipmunk can hold two acorns in each of its cheek pouches. The pouches are formed bys sacs made of folds of skin on either side of the throat. Not only chipmunks but hamsters, pocket gophers and some monkeys have cheek pouches. chipmunks use their pouches to carry food to places where they will store its as they prepare for hibernation. They also use them for taking food to their young and for carrying pieces of wood with which to line their burrows. With its cheek pouches full of acorns, the chipmunk digs a hole. It stores the nuts in a hole so that other animals won't get them. The chipmunk carefully fills the hole and then pats the earth down with its paws.