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Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. [2] The roughly 41 species [ 3 ] are all endemic to North and Central America. [ 4 ] They are commonly known for their extensive tunneling activities and their ability to destroy farms and gardens.
A long-term controlled study of tunnel excavation by plains pocket gophers found that the rate of tunnel construction ranges from a high of 2,059 cm/week of new tunnels to a low of none over several weeks during the summer. About 30 to 50 m (98 to 164 ft) of tunnels were open at any one time.
Northern pocket gophers rarely appear above ground; when they do, they rarely venture more than 2.5 feet (0.76 m) from a burrow entrance. Underground, however, they often have tunnels that extend hundreds of feet where they live, store food, and give birth to their young. [2]
The mountain pocket gopher naturally occurs on the edges of mountain meadows, wet meadows, and coastal prairies. [4] Also dwelling in upward slopes of forests such as pine and fir, they create complicated tunnel systems in the friable soil of these forest floors.
Thomomys pocket gophers live underground and create extensive systems of tunnels through which they traverse. They move earth from below ground, and deposit it above ground in piles known as mounds. They move earth from below ground, and deposit it above ground in piles known as mounds.
Since pocket gophers are so solitary, any contact that they have with other animals is likely to be with other pocket gophers of their same species. In this way, a certain initial type of lice could be passed on almost exclusively in one species of pocket gopher for generations and generations, producing a new species of louse, specific to one ...