One man's cute little critter is another woman's nemesis, huh? It makes sense that they're so destructive...basically nothing but striped rodents. The Wiki chipmunk page contains a video of these critters in northern Wisconsin, so you must be Ground Zero. I could have written this about me. My critters cycle through...as you said, likely predators coming in, getting populations under control, moving on to bigger buffets until the local population builds back up, lather/rinse/repeat. This is most obvious to me with the turkey/fox combo. And I won't poison stuff, either. I get field mice every few years and won't use anything but snap traps (and snakes.) My gravel driveway is overgrown with grass, but I don't want to spray it with an herbicide because of the food chain issue you stated. I always see black snakes and skinks around my deck & porch, and just the other day I found a box turtle. Reptiles are a pretty good indicator of how foundationally healthy things are.
Same markings as my snuggie cat. They have feet the size of a Clydesdale horse. Snuggie is walking talking trouble maker, won't let me or the other cats have any peace. He also eats like a horse.
Yes. And he has become very vocal. I usually feed him around 5 pm. but if he wants earlier or I am nor on time putting it down, he barks at me until I do. Very proud of him, as he has learned to potty in one spot only on the pad I have set up in a small foyer.