Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 species are all endemic to North and Central America. They are commonly known for their extensive tunneling activities and their ability to destroy farms and gardens.
Goff's southeastern pocket gopher was a pocket gopher endemic to Brevard County, Florida, United States. The last sightings recorded were in 1955. They burrowed and lived mostly underground eating mainly underground vegetation. Their habitat was temperate desert and sandy coastline. Due to human population growth and development of its habitat, this gopher is now extinct.
The yellow-faced pocket gopher is a species of pocket gopher that is native to shortgrass prairies in the south-western United States and northern Mexico. It is the species that lives north of the Southern Coahuila Filter-Barrier (SCFB). Among the different species, the yellow-faced pocket gopher has a small to medium-sized skull. The fossil of this genus was recorded from the pre-Pleistocene Benson Beds of Arizona.
The southeastern pocket gopher is a species of pocket gopher that is native to the southeastern United States. It occurs in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, where it is the only pocket gopher.
The desert pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is found in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico and in Texas and New Mexico in the United States.
The plains pocket gopher is one of 35 species of pocket gophers, so named in reference to their externally located, fur-lined cheek pouches. They are burrowing animals, found in grasslands and agricultural land across the Great Plains of North America, from Manitoba to Texas. Pocket gophers are the most highly fossorial rodents found in North America.
The Texas pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is found in Tamaulipas in Mexico and in Texas in the United States.
The central Texas pocket gopher or Llano pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is endemic to central Texas in the United States.
The tropical pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is endemic to Mexico. Its natural habitat is hot deserts. It is threatened by habitat loss.
The camas pocket gopher, also known as the camas rat or Willamette Valley gopher, is a rodent, the largest member in the genus Thomomys, of the family Geomyidae. First described in 1829, it is endemic to the Willamette Valley of northwestern Oregon in the United States. The herbivorous gopher forages for vegetable and plant matter, which it collects in large, fur-lined, external cheek pouches. Surplus food is hoarded in an extensive system of tunnels. The dull-brown-to-lead-gray coat changes color and texture over the year. The mammal's characteristically large, protuberant incisors are well adapted for use in tunnel construction, particularly in the hard clay soils of the Willamette Valley. The gophers make chattering sounds with their teeth; males and females make purring sounds when they are together, and the young make twittering sounds. Born toothless, blind and hairless, the young grow rapidly before being weaned at about six weeks of age.
Attwater's pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is endemic to the Texas Coastal Bend in the southcentral United States.
Baird's pocket gopher or the Louisiana pocket gopher is a species of pocket gopher that is native to the southern United States. In total, there are three almost identical species of eastern pocket gopher; Geomys attwateri, G. bursarius, and G. breviceps. G. breviceps is larger in size, G. attwateri is medium-sized and G. bursarius is a bit smaller. Other than by size variation they are not identifiable by external features. Baird's pocket gophers are small rodents with most of their weight on the top half of their bodies.
Knox Jones's pocket gopher is a species of pocket gopher found in Texas and New Mexico. This species is named for Dr. J. Knox Jones Jr. (1929–1992), a prolific mammalogist at Texas Tech University.
Geomys jugossicularis, also known as Hall's pocket gopher and Colorado pocket gopher, is a species of pocket gopher native to the western United States. Little is known of its behavior or ecology aside from typical behaviors of the other pocket gophers.
Geomys lutescens, also known as the Sand Hills pocket gopher, is a species of pocket gopher native to the western United States. It is a fossorial rodent that inhabits the Mississippi basin. The common name is derived from the type locality of Sand Hills.
Geomys streckeri, also known as Strecker's pocket gopher, is a species of pocket gopher found in Texas. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Texas pocket gopher. Chromosomal analyses have proven this species to be distinct. Analysis of its mitochondrial cytochrome b points to this species being a sister clade to Geomys personatus, Geomys attwateri, and Geomys tropicalis. Other evidence, using a Bayesian analysis of ribosomal RNA and certain proteins, points to it being embedded within the G. personatus clade and being a sister species to G. attwateri.
