Botta's pocket gopher

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Botta's Pocket Gopher

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Geomyidae
Genus:	Thomomys
Species:	T. bottae

Binomial name

Thomomys bottae
(Eydoux and Gervais, 1836)

Botta's pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) is a pocket gopher native to western North America, from California east to Texas and from southern Utah and Colorado south to Mexico. It is also known in some sources as valley pocket gopher, particularly in California.

This species is medium-sized, with males reaching a length of approximately 25-26cm and a weight of 160-250g, and females averaging about 22 cm in length and a weight of 120-200g. This species is highly adaptable, burrowing into a very diverse array of soils from loose sands to tightly packed clays, and from arid deserts to high altitude meadows. It is strictly herbivorous, and will often pull plants into the ground by the roots to consume them in the safety of its burrow, where it spends 90% of its life. The burrows of this species may reach lengths of more than 150m, and only extend above ground in times of snowfall. Traces of these aboveground burrows are sometimes called "gopher eskers."

Main predators of this species include badgers, coyotes, weasels, and snakes, but other predators include skunks, owls, bobcats, and hawks. This species is considered a pest in urban and agricultural areas due to its burrowing habit and its predilection for alfalfa; however, it is also considered beneficial as its burrows are a key source of aeration for soils in the region.

At least 185 subspecies have been described for this animal, mostly on the basis of geographical distribution.

Both the specific and common names of this species honor Paul-Émile Botta, a naturalist and archaeologist who collected mammals in California in the 1820s and 1830s.