Botta's Pocket Gopher
Thomomys bottae

No picture available

Body length: 5 - 7"
Diet: Roots and tubers

Pocket gophers spend much of their lives in darkness, tunneling through soft dirt in search of roots and tubers. Their earth-moving ability and appetite for plants make them a nuisance to farmers, and much money is spent in attempts to contain them. But pocket gophers did quite well before there were farmers to feed them, and flourish today in both uncultivated and farmed areas.

Like many burrowing, or fossorial, creatures, pocket gophers have short, strong forelimbs, broad claws, small eyes, and a cylindrical body shape. In addition, their short-tipped bare tail is a sensory organ, enabling them to crawl backwards down a tunnel nearly as fast as they can move forward. Telltale signs of pocket gophers include piles of loose dirt and scattered plant stems on the ground surface. At Tonto National Monument, they probably occur in areas of moist, fine soils such as in Cave Creek Canyon and other riparian areas, although they have not yet been verified with a voucher specimen or photograph.

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