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Pocket gophers are solitary outside of the breeding season, aggressively maintaining territories that vary in size depending on the resources available. Males and females may share some burrows and nesting chambers if their territories border each other, but in general, each pocket gopher inhabits its own individual tunnel system.
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 ...
The gophers spend 72% of their time in their nests, coming above ground to search for food or mates, and for young animals to establish new burrows. Territorial and aggressive, especially in male-to-male interaction, these rodents appear to use their greatly increased sensitivity to soil vibration to maintain their solitary lifestyle.
Like other pocket gophers, they have a large head, a short, muscular neck, small eyes and ears, and short legs. The forefeet are large with powerful digging claws, while the hindfeet are stout, with flat soles. There is a fur-lined cheek pouch on either side of the mouth, from which the name "pocket gopher" derives. Females have eight teats. [3]
Within this region, it inhabits areas with deep sandy soils, rather than the harder loamy soils favoured by the plains pocket gopher, and feeds on the roots and stems of plants such as yucca, sunflowers, and various grasses. [4] The gopher is territorial and solitary, except during the October to April breeding season. [5]
The pocket gophers are considered to be medium to small in size in the order Rodentia. Baird's pocket gopher has a cylinder shaped body with most of its weight carried near its head. The zygomatic arch is shorter than the width of the mouth, meaning the dorsal of the animal exceeds the jugal bone. The neck is a little thinner but the heaviest ...
Mountain pocket gophers, as others in the genus Thomomys, have small ears, eyes, and fur-lined cheek pouches. They have short legs with large claws on their feet and smooth incisors . Mountain gophers tend to spend a majority of their time underground and are mostly active at night. [ 2 ]
The southern pocket gopher (Thomomys umbrinus) is a species of rodent in the family Geomyidae. [2] 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.