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Trapping season has come to an end for me. First started in the summer of 2019. Rookie year and I still got 5. 2020 was a much more productive year as I got 49 plus a bonus species of 3. 2021 was a disappointing year as I only got 1. What do I trap you say? I live-trap chipmunks. They can and do damage to buildings/equipment on your property. All were caught in a small live-trap put beneath a bird feeder. Just sat it on top of seed that the birds spill on the ground. Twice I got 2 in the trap at once. Sure, there's an easier way to deal with them but my wife said I couldn't kill them. Besides, my neighbor, who is only 30' away sets out kill traps under his feeder. He doesn't care what he gets in the traps. Cats, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, it doesn't matter. Chipmunks have 2-8 pups TWICE each season. Let's say that each female has 5 pups each time. That's 10 pups per year. Let's also say that 1/3 of those I trapped in 2020 were female (16). That means there would have been 160 more chipmunks in/near my property, had they all survived. So what did I do with the chippies? I relocated them to a nature park 2 miles down the road that has acres of woods with many food sources for them. My son told me that when an animal species is transplanted from one area to another, the already established population will 'terminate' the 'intruders'. Maybe, maybe not. The 3 bonus species I got were squirrels. They went to the park, too.

I too had some chipmunks around a few years ago. Then the population exploded. I had left them alone until they decided to move into the storage area of my shop by chewing the seal on the bottom of the overhead door. I replaced the over priced seal only to have it chewed to shit in two days. That's it, time for war. While I respect your humanitarian approach, I prefer to use my Ruger 10-22 which has been converted to an AR-15 style with a rifle scope mounted (my eyes are not what they used to be) and high velocity copper plated hollow point bullets. I can pick off those little bastards at will. This year I had some help. In spring I discovered a couple of large grass snakes had moved into the wood pile. It wasn't long and there were little ones. The chipmunk and mouse population dwindled dramatically. I keep tabs on the varmints closely. Mice, chipmunks, red squirrels, skunks, ground hogs, and raccoons are all fair game. Then there are those pesky beaver that like to infiltrate my pond, out come the higher ballistics for those.

How many chipmunks does it take to substitute for one gray squirrel in recipes?

Very valid question. I substitute eagle for squirrel in my wild game recipes. Has a less nutty taste.