The forepaws are large-clawed. The pocket gopher's tail is sparsely haired and serves as a sensory mechanism that guides it while moving backwards through its tunnel system. The whiskers on its face are also sensitive, and help it to travel 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.
This great variability in size and color is attributed to adaptations to local conditions that result from a low dispersal rate which limits gene flow. Habitat Pocket gophers occupy a wide variety of habitats. They occur from low coastal areas to elevations above 12,000 feet. They are also found in a wide variety of soil types and conditions, reaching their greatest densities on fertile, light-textured soils with vegetation, especially when that vegetation has large, fleshy roots, bulbs, tubers or other underground structures. Soil depth and texture are important to the presence or absence of gophers.