In this video, Broadly meets Madoka Yomeda and her Insta-famous pet chipmunks Bikke and Tod in Japan. Yomeda runs her pets' shared personal Instagram account, @Bikke-the-chip, which has accumulated over 100,000 followers in the past two years. Before that, Yomeda kept her social media chipmunk content to Twitter, but after high demand, she moved the photos and videos to Instagram. There, Bikke and Tod can be seen reading books, playing house, and posing in flower crowns and witch hats.After Yomeda's pet dog passed away two years ago, she decided she needed the comfort of a new animal in her home. When she found out that Bikke's birthday fell on the same day that her dog had died, she knew it was meant to be. Ever since, Yomeda has enjoyed learning about and growing accustomed to the wild nature of chipmunks. "They don't come to you like dogs do," she says. "That's why it's that much better when they get used to you."
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Yomeda tells us that she only acquired Tod last year, after she started Bikke's Instagram account, hence why Tod's name isn't part of the handle. Because of this, she explains, many of Bikke-the-chip's followers are under the false impression that there's only one chipmunk in their photos. Bikke, a female, and Tod, a male, may share an Instagram, but Yomeda says that the two aren't exactly friendly with one another. "Chipmunks are pretty independent and very territorial," she says. Because of this, she rarely lets the two play together in fear that they might hurt one another.In the two years that she's had the account, Yomeda has received gifts and kind messages from people all around the world, though she says she doesn't consider her pets celebrities. "The chipmunks might be famous, but we haven't changed," she says. "It'd make me happy if more people wanted to learn about chipmunks."Read More: Meet the Woman Who Owns Huge Hissing Cockroaches as Pets