Gophers have small external ears, small eyes, and lips that close behind their large incisors, all adaptations to their underground existence. The pocket gopher's tail is sparsely haired and serves as a sensory mechanism that guides the gopher while moving backward through its tunnel system. The whiskers on its face are also sensitive, and help the pocket gopher while traveling about in its darkened tunnel. Adult males are larger than adult females. Their fur is fine and soft, and highly variable in color.
Colors range from nearly black to pale brown to almost white.
The great variability in size and color of pocket gophers is attributed to their low dispersal rate and, thus, limited gene flow, resulting in adaptation to local conditions. Several other small mammals are sometimes confused with pocket gophers. Pocket gophers can be distinguished from other mammals by their telltale signs, as well as by appearance. Pocket gophers leave soil mounds on the surface of the ground. The mounds are usually fan-shaped, and tunnel entrances are plugged, keeping intruders out of burrows.