Description
The size, weight, and hindfoot length of the Idaho pocket gopher are variable, although typically no more than 150 millimetres (5.9 in), 90 grams (3.2 oz), and 26 millimetres (1.0 in) for each, respectively. The color of the back ranges from yellowish brown with dark brown tipped hair to grayish brown or fully dark brown, fairly uniform overall. Most are dark gray around the nose. The ventral area is light gray and usually mixed with yellow and yellow-brown. The feet are whitish in appearance, with tail color varying between specimens. [4] It is paler in winter than summer. [8]
The gopher's skull is small and lightly built, with incisors that are slender and not procumbent (inclined towards the lips). Its baculum (a bone present in the penis of many mammals) is rather long, from 17.8 to 23.4 millimetres (0.70 to 0.92 in), and the bullae (bony structures in the back of the skull) are large. It has either 56 or 58 chromosomes (the difference is due to Robertsonian translocation, a condition where a chromosome becomes attached to another). [4] The ears are small. [8]
Behavior and ecology
Individuals live in burrows, with each gopher creating and living in its own burrow. They remain active for the entire year, and store excavated soil in their burrows, which stays after the snow has melted. [3] It is sympatric in certain areas with the northern pocket gopher, which it does not interbreed with. The former species prefers shallower, rockier soils, while the latter prefers deeper soil with fewer rocks. [3] [4]
It is not known what the Idaho pocket gopher eats, although related species consume parts of plants from vegetation below and above ground level, mainly forbs and grasses. [3]
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.
The smooth-toothed pocket gophers, genus Thomomys, are so called because they are among the only pocket gophers without grooves on their incisors. They are also called the western pocket gophers because they are distributed in western North America. They are considered distinct enough from other pocket gophers to be recognized as a separate subfamily or tribe.
The Mazama pocket gopher is a smooth-toothed pocket gopher restricted to the Pacific Northwest. The herbivorous species ranges from coastal Washington, through Oregon, and into north-central California. Four subspecies of the Mazama Pocket Gopher are classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, including T. m. pugetensis, T. m. tumuli , T. m. glacialis, and T. m. yelmensis. The Mazama Pocket Gopher is one of the smallest of 35 species in the pocket gopher family.
Botta's pocket gopher is a pocket gopher native to western North America. It is also known in some areas as valley pocket gopher, particularly in California. Both the specific and common names of this species honor Paul-Émile Botta, a naturalist and archaeologist who collected mammals in California in 1827 and 1828.
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 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.
Buller's pocket gopher is a species of gopher that is endemic to Mexico.
The Great Basin pocket mouse is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is found in British Columbia in Canada and the western United States.
The Columbian ground squirrel is a species of rodent common in certain regions of Canada and the northwestern United States. It is the second largest member of the genus Urocitellus, which is part of the tribe Marmotini, along with marmots, chipmunks, prairie dogs, and other holarctic ground squirrels. They are stout, with short dense fur, which is characteristically tawny across the bridge of the nose. Social encounters sometimes are initiated with kissing behavior and the most common activity above ground is standing at attention. Residing in mountainous terrain and high plains in northern latitudes, they hibernate for 8 to 9 months of the year in burrows, which may be used for many years. They are emaciated when emerging in the spring. The Columbian ground squirrel came to the attention of the scientific community through writings produced by Lewis and Clark, while 21st century molecular genetics has more finely illuminated its ties with other close relatives.
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.
The Wyoming pocket gopher is a species of gopher that is endemic to the United States. Between 1915 and 1979, it was generally considered to be a subspecies of the northern pocket gopher.
The mountain pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is endemic to California and Nevada. The Sierra Nevada are part of its range.
Townsend's pocket gopher is a species of pocket gopher endemic to the northwestern United States.
The southern pocket gopher is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. It is found in Mexico and the United States, usually in high altitude grassland and shrubland. It feeds on plant material and has an extensive burrow above which is a large heap of earth on the surface of the ground.
The Oriental Basin pocket gopher is a species of pocket gopher which is endemic to Mexico. It was first described in 1895 by Clinton Hart Merriam. It was considered to be a subspecies of Merriam's pocket gopher in the late 20th and early 21st century but has been reinstated as its own species. The IUCN Red List has evaluated it to be of least concern.
The Perote pocket gopher, or Cofre de Perote pocket gopher, is a species of pocket gopher in the family Geomyidae.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
