pocket gophers
Cheek-pouched tunnel diggers
Pocket gophers are burrowing rodents native to North and Central America, named for the fur-lined cheek pouches they use to carry food.
They spend most of their lives underground, creating extensive tunnel systems that aerate soil but wreak havoc on lawns and gardens.
Often shortened to gophers: The pocket gophers destroyed my vegetable patch.
- cheek pouchesExpandable oral storage compartments
- fossorial behaviorAdapted for digging underground
- burrowingDigging to create shelter
- incisorsFront cutting teeth
- tunnelsUnderground hollow pathways
mound builders · moles · rodents · underground · crop damage · garden pests · granivores · western states · subterranean · dirt mounds · excavation · plant roots · root vegetables · sandy soils · lawn damage · herbivorous · grasslands · alfalfa
- rodentsmouse, rat, guinea pig, squirrel, mice
- Soil Lifeearthworm, earthworms, nightcrawler, nematodes, soil bacteria
- Vineyard Pests
pocket gophersbats
Flying nocturnal mammals
birds · flying squirrels · hummingbirds · eagles · hawks
pocket gophersprairie dogs
Burrowing plains rodents
meerkats · naked mole rats · social insects · bees · ants