Gophers
Gophers are small, herbivorous rodents belonging to the family Geomyidae, which encompasses forty-one species across seven genera. Found primarily in North and Central America, they inhabit a variety of environments including deserts, grasslands, and agricultural areas. Gophers are known for their distinctive burrowing behavior, spending most of their lives underground and being nocturnal foragers. They possess special anatomical features such as large incisors for gnawing, fur-lined cheek pouches for carrying food, and strong front claws for digging. With a gestation period of about twenty days, female gophers can give birth to litters ranging from one to thirteen young, with the average size being five to six. These rodents typically live between one and three years, although some species may have longer lifespans. Gophers are often viewed as pests in agricultural settings due to their destructive tunneling and feeding habits, which can damage crops and undermine soil structure. They have natural predators, including coyotes, foxes, and birds of prey, while some species are currently considered threatened or endangered.
Gophers
Gopher Facts
Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Bilateria
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia (rodents)
Family: Geomyidea (gophers)
Genus and Species: Forty-one species in seven genera
Geographical location: North and Central America, from central and southwestern Canada, western and southeastern United States, Mexico, and south to the Panama-Colombia border
Habitat: Deserts, shrubby land, grasslands, agricultural areas, and tropical lowlands
Gestational period: About twenty days
Life span: Between one and three years
Special anatomy: Fur-lined pockets in cheeks, whiskers, strong incisor teeth, front claws for digging, tactile tails
Gophers are small, herbivorous rodents. They are rat-sized, but somewhat more rotund than rats. They form the family Geomyidae, which has seven genera, forty-one species, and hundreds of subspecies. Gophers burrow in the ground and do not leave their burrows during daylight hours. Different species are found in deserts, shrublands, and grasslands across much of North and Central America, from central and southwestern Canada through the western and southeastern United States, Mexico and south to the Panama-Colombia border.
Striped gophers (Citellu tridecemlineatus, prairie squirrels), which have thirteen body stripes, live from the western plains of the United States to Panama. Camas rats (Thomomys bulbivorus) are the largest gophers, reaching body lengths of over one foot. Plains pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius) are dark brown and common in the Mississippi Valley.
French settlers in North America first noticed that gopher burrows honeycombed the soil and named them gaufres (French for “honeycomb”). These animals all have pouches (pockets) in their cheeks and are often called pocket gophers (pouched rats). Pocket gophers are divided into thirty-eight Geomyini species. The main gopher types include eastern pocket gophers, yellow pocket gophers, and western pocket gophers.
Physical Characteristics of Gophers
Gophers are plump, ratlike rodents, up to a quarter feet long and covered with soft, short, black, red-brown to gray fur. All have whiskers, to help them navigate underground and at night, and two large, fur-lined pockets, one in each cheek. These pockets, used to carry food, lead to the name pocket gopher. The pockets are lined with fur, and a gopher can turn them inside out to clean them.
Gophers have wide, blunt heads with underdeveloped ears and eyes. Their incisors are large and well-designed for gnawing. Gophers have short limbs and feet with powerful claws, longer on the forefeet. They dig tunnels with the claws of the front feet. Their thick, almost hairless tails, about three inches long, are sensitive tactile organs used to help them find their way around their tunnels when moving backward. Gophers can run backward about as quickly as forward. Their body lengths range from 5 and 14 inches (12 to 35 centimeters), and they weigh between 0.5 and 2 pounds (200 grams and 1 kilogram).
Gopher Life
Gophers eat leaves, grass, roots, nuts, tubers, buds, and farm vegetables. Their main foods, garnered in their tunnels, are roots and tubers. The other foods are gathered on nocturnal surface forays. They need water to survive, but when water is scarce in arid regions, they eat cacti to obtain it. The gophers store most of their food in the tunnels and chambers of their burrows. They carry the food to their burrows in their cheek pouches.
Gophers are solitary, and males are territorial. They come together only to breed. Breeding takes place in the spring and early summer. Female gophers can have one or several litters each year. They birth to between one and thirteen young, depending on the species. However, the average gopher litter size is between five and six. Gestation is about eighteen to twenty days. The young are completely dependent on their mothers at birth, weaned after a month, and have their own tunnels by age three to four months. Pocket gophers have life spans of one to seven years. Although, other species of gopher generally live between one and three years.
Western Pocket Gophers
Western pocket gophers—like other gophers—have small, round bodies. They are tan to gray and live in deserts, meadows, and farmlands in Canada, the southwest United States, Mexico, and Central America. They like areas where the soil is easy to dig. These gophers eat plant leaves, underground roots, and tubers. In dry areas, they eat cacti to obtain water. They travel on the surface at night, seeking and cutting through underground roots with sharp incisors. Western pocket gophers carry their food in their cheek pouches. They are territorial, and a given male’s territory may be up to one thousand square feet.
Western pocket gophers usually only breed once a year, although, they may sometimes have two litters in a year. Gestation is approximately three weeks, and young, born completely dependent on their mothers, develop their own burrows and territories within three months. These gophers live for four years in the wild and seven years in captivity.
Gophers are very destructive when they tunnel in farmland such as meadows, farms, and orchards. The tunnels are identified by the mounds of earth left along their courses. Very voracious, gophers eat all vegetation they find underground. They destroy food trees, tuber crops, and flower crops by gnawing roots, tubers, and bulbs. There are several natural ways to deter gophers from destroying crops, including no-kill traps, though poison is also used.
Coyotes, domestic dogs and cats, foxes, badgers, skunks, rattlesnakes, owls, and hawks are some of the gophers' many predators. Although some species and subspecies of gophers are considered threatened or endangered, other gopher species are not threatened.
Principal Terms
Gestation: time in which mammalian offspring develop in the uterus
Herbivore: an animal that only eats plants
Incisor: a cutting tooth that acts like a pair of scissors or chisel
Rodent: any gnawing animal
Bibliography
Alderton, David. Rodents of the World. New York: Facts on File, 1996.
Crouch, Glenn L., and Larry R. Frank. Poisoning and Trapping Pocket Gophers to Protect Conifers in Northeastern Oregon. Portland, Oreg.: Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1979.
"Gopher History and Some Interesting Facts." Animalia Life, 2014, animalia-life.com/gopher.html. Accessed 1 July 2023.
Gould, Edwin, and George McKay, editors. Encyclopedia of Mammals. 2d ed., San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 1998.
Lacey, Eileen A., James L. Patton, and Guy N. Cameron, editors. Life Underground: The Biology of Subterranean Rodents. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Mayor, Dana. “Gopher.” A-Z Animals, 27 May 2024, a-z-animals.com/animals/gopher. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
“Pocket Gophers.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Pocket-Gophers. Accessed 19 Aug. 2024.
Zito, Barbara. “How To Get Rid Of Gophers.” Forbes, 18 Apr. 2023, www.forbes.com/home-improvement/pest-control/get-rid-of-gophers. Accessed 1 July 2023.