Creation Moments

Jonathan Cotton: Why do Siberian chipmunks wear cologne? Find out next on today's Creation Moments. And now, here's our Creation Moments host, Ian Taylor.

Ian T. Taylor: Siberian chipmunks are pretty low in the food chain. Everything from snakes to foxes seek out a chipmunk meal. However, Siberian chipmunks are very clever at using one of their enemies to defend themselves. If a Siberian chipmunk discovers a dead snake, it will be understandably careful in making sure that it is first of all dead. Once it is certain, the chipmunk will chew on the dead snake's skin. Then, in what behavioral naturalists call self-anointing, the chipmunk applies the chewed snake skin to its coat. The chipmunks will also self-anoint with snake urine and feces. Field studies show that while the chipmunks ignore the carcasses of frogs, birds, or lizards, they will self-anoint in this way from four species of snake.

Further field observations explain the reason for this strange behavior. Snakes are less likely to try and eat an anointed chipmunk. The snake odor on the chipmunk may also deter other animals that feed on the chipmunks as well. The chipmunk's defense strategy raises some difficult questions for those who believe that the living world is a product of chance. How could these chipmunks figure out that coating themselves with the skin of their mortal enemy would protect them from their enemy? The task of developing this strategy and then overcoming its natural fear to approach that enemy, albeit dead, seems far too large for a chipmunk's mind.

However, it is a small and simple task for the creator who made all things and taught the chipmunk to protect themselves. That same God protects us from that old serpent, the devil, through his son, Jesus Christ.

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