| Baird's Pocket Gopher is also known as the Louisiana Pocket Gopher, though most of what is known about its ecology has come from studies of the species near College Station, Texas, and it occurs in Oklahoma and Arkansas as well as in Louisiana and Texas. It is found in areas of high biological diversity, and it forages for a variety of plant roots, stems, and leaves near its nest. This gopher spends almost all its time in the burrow system, gleaning food from plants obtained while digging lateral tunnels. One individual's burrow system can stretch for 180 m. Its nests are usually found as deep as 30 cm, but in wet months, it lives in aboveground mounds and thereby avoids being flooded out. It has bacteria in its digestive system that help it digest grasses, and like many plant-eating rodents, it re-ingests fecal pellets.
Also known as:
Louisiana Pocket Gopher
Length:
Average:
208 mm
Range:
192-222 mm
Weight:
Average:
100 g
Range:
78-150 g
References:
Baird, S.F., 1855. Characteristics of some new species of North American Mammalia, p. 335. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 7:333-337.
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Click here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account
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