The northern and Botta's pocket gophers have smooth upper incisors with a single indistinct groove near the inner border and have smaller bodies and proportionately smaller front feet than the plains and yellow-faced pocket gophers. These two species are often difficult to tell apart. The plains pocket gopher has two distinct grooves on the front surface of each upper incisor whereas the yellow-faced pocket gopher has one distinct groove. Biology, Reproduction and Behavior Pocket gophers feed on roots they encounter from digging, from vegetation they pull into the tunnel from below, and vegetation above ground near the tunnel. They like above-ground vegetation when it is green and succulent.
Pocket gophers prefer alfalfa.
Many trees and shrubs are clipped just above ground, especially under snow cover. Pocket gophers construct burrow systems by loosening the soil with their claws and incisors, then use their forefeet and chest to push the soil out of the burrow. The soil is deposited in fan-shaped mounds 12 to 18 inches wide and 4 to 6 inches high. Pocket gopher mound and its relation to the tunnel system. Burrow systems consist of a main tunnel, generally 4 to 18 inches below the soil surface, and a variable number of lateral burrows extending from the main.