Incredible Gopher Facts

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Gophers Are FossorialWhat other incredible gopher facts should you know? Gophers are ground dwellers, making them fossor...
01/02/2024

Gophers Are Fossorial

What other incredible gopher facts should you know? Gophers are ground dwellers, making them fossorial animals. Fossorial or burrowing animals live primarily underground, but they do come to the surface on different occasions.

Other fossorial animals include moles, badgers, meerkats, clams, shrews, and voles. Sometimes these animals are also referred to as subterranean fauna.

Gophers love being alone, which is why you only find one gopher per tunnel system. However, they may be forced to share their tunnel system with rabbits, toads, and snakes. Since they spend most of their time underground, it’s rare to spot a pocket gopher.

Gophers Travel BackwardsA gopher finds it just as easy to travel backward as forwards. Their round furry bodies are incr...
01/02/2024

Gophers Travel Backwards

A gopher finds it just as easy to travel backward as forwards. Their round furry bodies are incredibly strong.

Gophers have a body designed for digging. It makes sense they’re able to move forward and backward quickly. Their ability to rush in any direction has helped them thrive wonderfully throughout the years. Since gophers don’t have a great sense of smell or sight, they rely on their whiskers as they feel their way around.

Gophers Are Tasty Snacks for Great Blue HeronsGreat blue herons are wading birds that eat all sorts of things, including...
01/02/2024

Gophers Are Tasty Snacks for Great Blue Herons

Great blue herons are wading birds that eat all sorts of things, including adult-sized gophers! There are a ton of videos online where people caught great blue herons in the act of swallowing gophers. The heron’s long tapered bill serves as a spear. Hovering over a gopher hole, the heron drives its beak into the hole once the gopher starts to move.

Emerging with the gopher in its beak, the heron will open its mouth wide and swallow it whole! Herons digest every little bit of the gopher, including the small bones and fur. Sometimes a great blue heron will hunt for several gophers before eating its meal. They’ve been known to kill multiple gophers and only end up eating a couple of them.

Gophers Are Smart CrittersNext, on our list of incredible gopher facts, let’s talk smarts! Anyone who’s ever tried to tr...
27/01/2024

Gophers Are Smart Critters

Next, on our list of incredible gopher facts, let’s talk smarts! Anyone who’s ever tried to trap a gopher understands just how smart they can be. Gophers are intelligent critters; if you don’t know what you’re doing, they can easily outsmart you.

When a gopher escapes a trap, it learns from the experience. If a gopher detects the same trap, it’ll fill it with dirt and reroute the tunnel. The more a gopher successfully evades traps, the wiser it’ll become.

Trappers sometimes have to wait a week or two in between attempts to throw gophers off their games. Gophers may forget their trapping strategies by taking a little bit of time off.

A Gopher Will Scream to SurviveGophers are usually silent. However, sometimes they will scream to save a life! That’s ri...
22/01/2024

A Gopher Will Scream to Survive

Gophers are usually silent. However, sometimes they will scream to save a life! That’s right; gophers care about their family. Their biological predisposition towards nepotism pushes them to make high-pitched squeaking sounds when danger is near. Wolves, dolphins, and lions all share the same drive to protect their own kind.

By saving the life of a relative, the gopher helps guarantee the survival of its gene pool. Even though they’re willing to belt out a scream, that doesn’t mean gophers are outgoing animals. Instead, these ground-dwelling rodents are timid and seldomly interact with other animals.

Gophers Have Unusual LipsGopher lips are unusually adapted to fit behind their four incisors. The highly evolved lips he...
20/01/2024

Gophers Have Unusual Lips

Gopher lips are unusually adapted to fit behind their four incisors. The highly evolved lips help prevent dirt from entering their mouth while digging.

Since a gopher uses its teeth to dig, anything it can do to protect the dirt from building up in its mouth is a big help. Pocket gophers are known for having unique cheek pouches too. Their cheek pouches are perfect for transporting bits of food as they forage underground. It’s the furred-lined pouches that gave the pocket gopher its adorable name.

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