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Overview
Brief Summary
Description
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Mammal Species of the World
- Original description: Shaw, G., 1800. General zoology or systematic natural history, p. 215. G. Kearsley, London, 12:1-330.
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Distribution
Range Description
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Geographic Range
Geomys bursarius is found west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and north from Texas and northeastern Mexico, through the Great Plains and to the Canadian border.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Native )
- Paradiso, J. 1975. Walker's Mammals of the World, 3rd edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
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National Distribution
Canada
Origin: Native
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Present
Confidence: Confident
Type of Residency: Year-round
United States
Origin: Native
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Present
Confidence: Confident
Type of Residency: Year-round
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Global Range: Southern Manitoba (Roseau River valley), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana south to New Mexico and Texas.
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Physical Description
Morphology
Physical Description
Geomys bursarius has short fur, which can vary from a pale brown to black, and is usually paler on the underside (Paradiso 1975). As in other members of the family Geomyidae, the skull of G. bursarius is heavily reinforced, and it has strong jaw muscles. The tail is long, with little hair (MacDonald 1984). Foreclaws are large and grow rapidly. The body is 187-357 mm long, and the tail is 51-107 mm long (Whitaker 1997).
Range mass: 300 to 450 g.
Range length: 187 to 357 mm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: sexes alike
Average basal metabolic rate: 0.769 W.
- Macdonald, D. 1984. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File Publications.
- Whitaker, J. 1997. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
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Size
Size in North America
Length:
Range: 225-325 mm
Weight:
Range: 120-250 g
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Type Information
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Division of Mammals
Sex/Stage: Male; Adult
Preparation: Skin; Skull
Collector(s): A. Baker
Year Collected: 1889
Locality: Birdwood Creek, Sandhills, Lincoln County, Nebraska, United States, North America
- Type: Merriam, C. H. 1890 Oct 08. North American Fauna. 4: 51.
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Ecology
Habitat
Habitat and Ecology
The plains pocket gopher is active day and night; peak digging periods are at night and during crepuscular hours. Diet includes, fleshy roots, succulent stems, and small fruits are preferred. They are solitary animals, living within loose "colonies." Tunnels between neighbours are not interconnected. Home ranges are small. Pocket gophers are ecologically important as prey items and in influencing soils, microtopography, habitat heterogeneity, diversity of plant species, and primary productivity (Huntly and Inouye 1988).
Systems
- Terrestrial
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Habitat
Geomys bursarius is found in open to sparsely wooded areas. It prefers deep, sandy, crumbly soils, and its distribution tends to be limited by soil type. Because of this preference, the distribution of Geomys is often patchy, closely tracking the local soils (Heaney and Timm 1985; Paradiso 1975).
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland
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Comments: Prefers open lands such as prairies, pastures, cultivated areas with deep, friable, moist soils; e.g., sandy or moist alluvial soils in Oklahoma. Also oak-hickory savanna, oak savanna mixed with maple-basswood forest, mesquite prairie, prairie-deciduous forest mosaic (Williams, in Wilson and Ruff 1999; Heaney and Timm 1983). Fossorial. Dens underground in extensive tunnel systems. Most mounds and tunnels are constructed in the spring/fall.
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Migration
Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.
Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).
Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.
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Trophic Strategy
Food Habits
Geomys bursarius is herbivorous and feeds mainly on underground roots or tubers (Paradiso 1975). It also occasionally forages for vegetation above ground (MacDonald 1984). These animals rarely drink water, as they apparently obtain sufficient water from their food (Paradiso 1975).
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Comments: Fleshy roots, succulent stems, and small fruits preferred.
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General Ecology
A solitary animal; lives within loose "colonies." Tunnels between neighbors are not interconnected. Home ranges are small. Population density averages 4-5 individuals per acre (Banfield 1974). Pocket gophers are ecologically important as prey items and in influencing soils, microtopography, habitat heterogeneity, diversity of plant species, and primary productivity (Huntly and Inouye 1988).
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Life History and Behavior
Cyclicity
Comments: Active day and night; peak digging periods are at night and during crepuscular hours.
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Life Expectancy
Lifespan/Longevity
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 7.2 years.
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Lifespan, longevity, and ageing
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Reproduction
Reproduction
The sex ratio of pocket gophers is often skewed, with 3-4 times as many females as males. Male reproductive success is highly variable, with a small number of the males mating with a majority of the females (MacDonald 1984). Females can reach sexual maturity in the year of their birth, but males do not until the following year (MacDonald 1984). Mating begins in very early spring, depending on local climatic conditions. Young are born in early spring through the end of summer in the southern U.S., with the majority of offspring born April-July. There are one to three offspring in a litter. The gestation period is 18-19 days, and the young will stay with the mother for about 2 months (Paradiso 1975).
Average birth mass: 5.2 g.
Average gestation period: 51 days.
Average number of offspring: 4.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 91 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 91 days.
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Mating takes place in spring. Gestation lasts about 30 days. Gives birth to one litter of 1-6 (average 4-5) young each year, March-May. Female evicts young from burrow when they are ready to be weaned. Sexually mature in 12 months.
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Conservation
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List Assessment
Red List Category
Red List Criteria
Version
Year Assessed
Assessor/s
Reviewer/s
Justification
History
- 1996Lower Risk/least concern
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Conservation Status
Geomys bursarius is common within its range.
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
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National NatureServe Conservation Status
Canada
Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable
United States
Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure
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NatureServe Conservation Status
Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure
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Trends
Population
Population Trend
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Threats
Threats
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Comments: Vulnerable to rodenticide programs in Canada (Shoesmith, 1979 COSEWIC report).
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Management
Conservation Actions
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Relevance to Humans and Ecosystems
Benefits
Economic Importance for Humans: Negative
Pocket gophers are considered pests to agriculture, as well as in suburban lawns (Paradiso 1975).
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Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
The burrows of pocket gophers can help to aerate soil, and also provide some flood control by improving drainage (Paradiso 1975).
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Wikipedia
Plains pocket gopher
The plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) is one of thirty-five species of pocket gopher, 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.[2]
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Distribution
Plains pocket gophers are found throughout the Great Plains of North America ranging from southern Manitoba (Canada), and eastern North Dakota south to New Mexico and Texas in the United States, and as far east as the extreme western parts of Indiana. Eight subspecies are currently recognised, although some former subspecies have since been considered to be species in their own right, and are no longer included[3]:
- Geomys bursarius bursarius - Canada, the Dakotas, Minnesota
- Geomys bursarius illinoensis - Illinois
- Geomys bursarius industrius - southwestern Kansas
- Geomys bursarius major - Texas, Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico
- Geomys bursarius majusculus - Iowa, eastern Nebraska and Kansas, northern Missouri
- Geomys bursarius missouriensis - eastern Missouri
- Geomys bursarius ozarkensis - Arkansas
- Geomys bursarius wisconsinensis - western Wisconsin
Fossil remains have been found as far south as Tennessee, indicating a late Pleistocene, early Holocene population. This would support the hypothesis that drier environmental conditions with extensive prairies extended further south during the Late Wisconsinan glacial period, supporting populations of Geomys and other prairie species such as thirteen-lined ground squirrels and prairie chickens.[4]
Description
G. bursarius has short fur with brown to black coloration over the upper body and lighter brown or tan fur on the underparts. Whitish hairs cover the tops of the feet while the short, tapered tail is nearly naked. Fossorial adaptations include small eyes, short, naked ears, large forefeet with heavy claws. Zygomatic arches are widely flared, providing ample room for muscle attachment,[5] although, unlike other pocket gophers, this species does not use the curved incisors to assist the feet in digging.[3] The external cheek pouches, which distinguish this family from other mammals, can be turned inside-out for grooming purposes. They are used for carrying food up to 7 centimetres (2.8 in) in length and have a forward opening.[6]
Other adaptations to a fossorial lifestyle include a low resting metabolic rate of 0.946 ml O2/g/h,[3] and high conductance, a tolerance for low oxygen levels and high carbon dioxide levels, and a decreased water intake.[7]
Males are significantly larger than females, with a total body length of 25 to 35 centimetres (9.8 to 14 in), compared with 21 to 32 centimetres (8.3 to 13 in) in females. The tail is short and hairless, reaching 5 to 11 centimetres (2.0 to 4.3 in) in length, and only marginally longer in males. Adults males weigh from 230 to 473 grams (8.1 to 16.7 oz) and females 128 to 380 grams (4.5 to 13 oz).[3]
Ecology
Plains pocket gophers prefer deep, sandy, crumbly soils to facilitate their burrowing lifestyle and their herbivorous diet of plant roots. The local vegetation is less significant than the nature of the soil, and the gophers are found in prairie grasslands, agricultural land, and even urban areas.[8]
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 zero over several weeks during the summer. 30 to 50 metres (98 to 160 ft) of tunnels were open at any one time. Factors affecting the size of the tunnel system appeared to be influenced more by the amount of energy needed to maintain and patrol it rather than the amount of vegetation present.[9] Tunnels include nests, located about 50 centimetres (20 in) underground, and lined with grass and other plant material, as well as food caches containing grasses, roots, and tubers.[3]
The gophers share their tunnels with numerous species of insect, including flies, scarab[10] and carrion beetles,[11] and cave crickets.[12] Known predators include rattlesnakes, prairie kingsnakes, gopher snakes, feral cats, coyotes, foxes, badgers, hawks, and owls.[3]
Behavior
Plains pocket gophers show no seasonal change in activity, except for an increased level of activity during mating season. They do show a bimodal pattern of activity during the day with increased activity occurring from 1300-1700 and then again from 2200-0600.[7] For a fossorial animal with a metabolically expensive lifestyle (360-3400 times as much as terrestrial creatures), planning daily activity around burrow temperature, where lack of air flow and high humidity lead to a decrease in evaporative and convective cooling, is likely to be important.[2]
The gophers 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. They will rarely explore burrows inhabited by other gophers, although they will sometimes investigate those that have been previously abandoned.[3]
Reproduction
Plains pocket gophers typically breed only once a year, although they may sometimes breed twice in good years or warmer climates. The breeding season varies with latitude, ranging from April to May in Wisconsin to as long as January to September in Texas. Females give birth to one to six young after a gestation period of around 30 days.[3] However, pregnancies lasting up to 51 days have been recorded, and this variation may indicate some form of delayed fertilization, delayed implantation, or delayed zygote development.[citation needed]
The young are born hairless and blind, and initially weigh about 5 grams (0.18 oz). They begin to develop fur at ten days, open their eyes at three weeks, and are weaned by five weeks of age. Although they initially move around in their mother's burrow, after weaning they quickly leave to establish burrows of their own, and reach the full adult size after about three months.[3]
Conservation
Due to the widespread distribution of this species, its adaptability to suitable habitat, the lack of any major threats, and an apparently stable population, G. bursarius has a conservation status of Least Concern.[1] Though pocket gophers are considered to be no more than pests by farmers and suburban lawn owners, they play active roles in soil aeration, flood control via improved drainage, and soil and plant diversity.[5][13]
References
- ^ a b Linzey, A.V. & NatureServe (Hammerson, G.) (2008). Geomys bursarius. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 29 January 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
- ^ a b Vaughan, Terry A. et al. Mammalogy, 4th Edition. Thomson Learning, Inc. 2000.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Connior, M.B. (2011). "Geomys bursarius (Rodentia: Geomyidae)". Mammalian Species 43 (1): 104–117. doi:10.1644/879.1.
- ^ Sullivan, R. M. (1981). "A late Pleistocene population of the pocket gopher, Geomys cf. bursarius, in the Nashville Basin, Tennessee.". Journal of Mammalogy 62: 831–835.
- ^ a b Teeter, K. (2000) Geomys bursarius Animal Diversity Web. Downloaded on 26 October 2008 at [1]
- ^ Kurta, Allen. Mammals of the Great Lakes Region, Revised Edition. The University of Michigan Press. 1995.
- ^ a b Benedix, Jr., J. H. (1994). "A predictable pattern of daily activity by pocket gopher Geomys bursarius". Animal Behavior 48: 501–509.
- ^ Pitts, R.M. & Choate, J.R. (1007). "Reproduction of the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) in Missouri". Southwestern Naturalist 42 (2): 238–240. JSTOR 30055269.
- ^ Thorne, D.H. & Andersen, D.C. (1990). "Long-term soil-disturbance pattern by a pocket gopher, Geomys bursarius". Journal of Mammalogy 71: 84–89.
- ^ Gordon, R. D., and P. E. Skelley. 2007. "A monograph of the Aphodiini inhabiting the United States and Canada (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae)". Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, Vol. 79. The American Entomological Institute, Gainesville, Florida.
- ^ Peck. S.B. & Skelley, P.E. (2001). "Small carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae) from burrows of Geomys and Thomomys pocket gophers (Rodentia: Geomyidae) in the United States". Insecta Mundi 15 (3): 139–148. http://journals.fcla.edu/mundi/article/view/24969.
- ^ Kavorik, P. et al. (2001). "Insects inhabiting the burrows of the Ozark pocket gopher in Arkansas". Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science 62: 75–78. http://libinfo.uark.edu/aas/issues/2008v62/v62a10.pdf.
- ^ Reichman, O.J., et al. (2002). "The role of pocket gophers as subterranean ecosystem engineers.". Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17: 44–49.
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Names and Taxonomy
Taxonomy
Comments: The phylogenetic relationships of Geomys in general and of G. bursarius in particular are complex and uncertain (Zimmerman, in Wilson and Ruff 1999). Several taxa that formerly were considered to be subspecies of G. bursarius are now recognized as distinct species (G. attwateri, G. arenarius, G. breviceps, G. knoxjonesi, G. texensis).
Subspecies lutescens was regarded as a distinct species by Heaney and Timm (1983, 1985) and Jolley et al. (2000), but lutescens was regarded as a subspecies by Burns et al. (1985), Elrod et al. (2000), and Patton (in Wilson and Reeder 2005).
Geomys breviceps formerly was included in this species (Cothran and Zimmerman 1985, Bohlin and Zimmerman 1982, Block and Zimmerman 1991). Geomys arenarius was included in this species by Hafner and Geluso (1983). These two taxa were recognized as distinct species by Baker et al. (2003) and Patton (in Wilson and Reeder 2005).
See Dowler (1989) for a cytogenetic study of interaction between Geomys bursarius and Geomys attwateri; Williams and Cameron (1991) and Block and Zimmerman (1991) regarded attwateri as a distinct species.
At a contact zone in eastern New Mexico, Baker et al. (1989) found that major and knoxjonesi are functioning as biological species with gene pools that are effectively isolated (restricted gene flow). Block and Zimmerman (1991) recognized knoxjonesi as a distinct species. After studying mitochondrial RNA, Jolley et al. (2000) determined that G. knoxjonesi and G. arenarius appeared to be different lineages within Geomys, but state that "further investigation of G. knoxjonesi and G. b. major are warranted." Baker et al. (2003), and Patton (in Wilson and Reeder 2005) regarded knoxjonesi as a distinct species, whereas major was recognized as a subspecies of G. bursarius (Patton, in Wilson and Reeder 2005).
Block and Zimmerman (1991) analyzed allozymic evidence and found that the taxa formerly known as G. b. texensis and G. b. llanensis are a single genetic entity (regarded as Geomys texensis) that is specifically distinct from Geomys bursarius.
Elrod et al. (2000) determined that isolated populations in the Ozark Mountains are genetically and morphologically divergent. They described those populations as a new subspecies (G. b. ozarkensis).
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