The small ears have visible pinnae. It is basically a burrowing animal, a liter of earth or more sometimes being found at the mouth of its tunnels, but it evidently also moves about considerably on the surface. It is active both by day and by night. The stomachs of trapped individuals contained arthropods, green vegetation, and a substantial amount of fungi. Captives survived well on apples and rolled oats.
Some animals apparently spend the winter under the snow, digging up rhizomes and amancay lilies.
One pregnant female had four embryos and another had five. Young females apparently reach sexual maturity during the season of their birth. Miller et al. Its numbers might have been reduced through heavy livestock trampling of its burrow systems. The Johns Hopkins University Press.