Olympia Pocket Gopher

Mazama pocket gophers are ecosystem engineers: their tunnel systems and mounds (excess soil from their tunneling activities) aerate the soil and provide vital nutrients for their grassland and prairie ecosystem. They are fossorial animals, which means they live their lives almost entirely underground, although they may forage next to a mound opening to allow for a quick escape back into their tunnel systems, and juveniles may disperse above ground. But they typically forage from below-ground, clipping rootlets from forage plants, or pulling entire plants below ground into their foraging tunnels. They store plant clippings for later use in special caches designed to keep their food dry. They rest and eat in their nest chambers, and even have latrines, which are blocked off once full, becoming a source of nutrients for grassland and prairie plants. In this manner, their tunnels systems are kept clean of detritus and dung.

Mazama pocket gophers are territorial, preferring to live alone in their tunnel systems. Tunnel systems are kept separate by virtue of one or more soil plugs between them. More than one gopher is found in the same tunnel system only during mating season or when the pups are still with their mother in the spring and summer months.  Mazama pocket gophers do not hibernate during winter months, but stay active all year long.

The Olympia subspecies of the Mazama pocket gopher is a small mammal ranging in length from 8 to 9 inches when measured from nose to tail. They are known as pocket gophers because they have fur-lined external pockets on either side of their mouth, similar to chipmunks.

They have short tubular bodies and strong arms equipped with long pointed claws that allow them to move a tremendous amount of dirt. All of their teeth grow continuously throughout their lives, because they use their teeth along with their long curved claws to sift the roots of plants out of the dirt as they dig their tunnels. Although their vision is poor, their highly sensitive tails may assist in navigation through tunnels.

Olympia pocket gophers are blackish brown, although pelage color can change somewhat depending on the soils they inhabit.

Roy Prairie, Olympia, Tenino and Yelm pocket gophers live in well-drained, easily-crumbled soil, which describes many of the prairie and grassland soils that were deposited in the south Puget Sound area of Washington State after the last glacial retreat, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Mazama pocket gophers don’t use soils that have a high clay or silt content, because clay soils are difficult for them to dig through and not as permeable to water and both clay and highly-silty soils are too wet for them to live in. Mazama pocket gophers also avoid extremely sandy soils that won’t hold the shape of a tunnel. Everywhere the Roy Prairie, Olympia, Tenino and Yelm pocket gophers occur, they occupy prairie-like habitat - areas that are relatively open, with short-statured vegetation and few woody plants. The number and size of rocks in the soil appear to strongly affect Mazama pocket gophers’ ability to make a living in what may look like otherwise suitable soils, as does the kind of vegetation growing on the soil. Short flowering plants and grasses are the kind of vegetation Mazama pocket gophers seem to like best. They avoid soils that are covered with forest or woody shrubs and Mazama pocket gophers can be crowded out by trees or invasive woody plants like Scotch broom.

Mazama pocket gophers get all of their water from the foods they eat, and so they prefer to eat succulent, nutrient-rich roots, shoots, bulbs and tubers. A few commonly-eaten foods include camas, hairy cat’s ear, lupine, phlox, dandelion, clover, woolly sunflower and violet, not all of which are native plants.

Mazama pocket gophers live an average of one to two years, though some may live longer. Sexual maturity is reached at one year of age. Males most likely mate with more than one female, but it is also likely that mating is based on female choice. Females are typically pregnant between 18 or 19 days before delivering a litter of five pups, on average. Unlike most other small rodents, or even other kinds of pocket gophers, Mazama pocket gophers only produce one litter of pups a year. Pups are altricial, meaning they are hairless, immobile, with closed eyes and unable to obtain food on their own. The female raises the pups alone. By late summer or early fall, the mother will block the juvenile gophers out of the natal burrow, forcing them to disperse to the next nearest unoccupied tunnel system. 

Mazama pocket gophers are ecosystem engineers: their tunnel systems and mounds, which are made of excess soil from their tunneling activities, aerate the soil and provide vital nutrients for their grassland and prairie ecosystem. While they are fossorial animals, living most of their lives almost entirely underground, they may forage next to a mound opening to allow for a quick escape back into their tunnel systems. Juveniles may also disperse above ground. All told, they typically forage from below-ground, clipping rootlets from forage plants or pulling entire plants below ground into their foraging tunnels. They store plant clippings for later use in special caches designed to keep their food dry. Nest chambers serve many purposes, from safe places to rest and eat, to underground latrines - which are blocked off once full and later become a source of nutrients for grassland and prairie plants. In this manner, their tunnels systems are kept clean of detritus and dung.

Mazama pocket gophers are territorial, preferring to live alone in their tunnel systems. Tunnel systems are kept separate by virtue of one or more soil plugs between them. More than one gopher is found in the same tunnel system only during mating season or when the pups are still with their mother in the spring and summer months. Mazama pocket gophers do not hibernate during winter months, but stay active all year long.