Mazama Pocket Gopher (Thomomys mazama)

(Mazama pocket gopher by Bill Leonard)

The Mazama Pocket Gopher (Thomomys Mazama), is one of the smallest species of pocket gopher alive. They live anywhere north of the Cascade Mountain range. Generally, they spend most of their time underground in burrows. Once they create a home they stay there without to much moving around, however, during rainy seasons they sometime shift their house's location around as to avoid any significantly damp soil.

Mazama Pocket Gophers are quite important to the balance of ecosystems. They can be quite helpful, their food stashes and excrement can be very beneficial to the soil and plants that reside above their burrows. Mazama Pocket Gophers eat fungi, grasses, flowers, and the roots of plants. They sometimes store these organic materials within their burrows, and occasionally they will rot and break down before being eaten. This helps enrich the soil and pumps it full of good nutrients. Mazama Pocket Gophers are also important as prey; many species rely on them as a food source such as: Large birds, Coyotes, weasels, and other large predators.


(Mazama Pocket Gopher 2012 survey plots results)

Currently, there are only 3 or 4 known large Mazama Pocket Gopher communities, each of these communities have populations in the 1,000s. In 2012, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife conducted a survey of Mazama Pocket Gophers. They checked for gophers in 784 plots that either had gophers in the past or have ideal conditions for them. Mazama Gophers were only found in a fraction of these plots, which is a huge decrease compared to the usual populations of gophers.

It is thought that the cause for the massive decrease in Mazama Pocket Gopher populations is due to the massive amounts of urban development that has taken place in past years. Even though they are now on the species of concern list, gopher habitats are still often destroyed by construction without anyone even knowing. The rest of the habitats that are not near development are taking damage due to invasive species taking over their homes such as the Scotch Broom. Due to these factors, many gophers have taken up residence at airports and at Joint Base Lewis-McCord. Both of these locations have ample underground spaces that have not had recent construction on them. Also, the gophers benefit from the regular lawn mows that take place. The lawn mows help to keep invasive species from overtaking their habitat.

There has been some work to create ideal habitats for Mazama Pocket Gophers and then to slowly introduce and integrate the gophers into them. For example, a research project has succeeded in creating a Mazama Pocket Gopher community at Wolf Haven International in Thurston County. The state has also been trying to capture gophers in urban areas and re-release them in wildlife preserves. Its to early to tell if this will help the Mazama Pocket Gophers populations rise, but so far the gophers have reacted positively to these efforts and it is thought that their populations will grow in the coming years.

I chose this animal for my research project for a few reason, first off I just think that they are cute. Second off, I think that gophers are often looked down upon as pests because they can destroy yards, because of this I feel that a lot of people probably aren't to concerned about their populations. However, gophers can be extremely beneficial to ecosystems and no species deserves to go extinct no matter how annoying they can be.


Works Cited:
Stinson et al. Mazama Pocket Gopher (Thomomys mazama). Threatened and Endangered Wildlife in Washington, Allen et al, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, eopugetsound.org/articles/mazama-pocket-gopher-thomomys-mazama.