Pocket gophers spend nearly their entire lives underground. They may only be seen when they excavate soil to the surface or when they disperse to new areas. They create more mounds in spring or fall than in summer and winter. Each adult pocket gopher occupies its own burrow system most of the year. A pocket gopher's burrow system is extensive.
Pocket gophers can cause costly damage to native range, pasture and hay fields.
They also can cause damage in orchards, windbreaks, gardens, residential lawns, public parks, golf courses, airport runways, buried utility cables and irrigation pipes. Burrows of pocket gophers redirect surface water from main, lateral and field irrigation canals. Their mounds damage hay harvesting equipment. Pocket gophers eat a variety of plants including broad-leafed weeds, crop plants, and grasses. Gophers eat mostly roots, tubers, corms, and rhizomes exposed in their burrows.