Pocket Gophers
Pocket gophers earn their single group status through a specialized subterranean lifestyle and a very distinctive piece of evolutionary hardware, namely fur-lined cheek pouches on the outside of their mouths that let them haul roots and vegetation through the dark without swallowing dirt. You will rarely spot one of these solitary rodents above ground, but you will certainly notice their overnight artwork scattered across the lawn, which consists of fan-shaped soil mounds featuring a neat, off-center dirt plug over the lateral exit hole.
Telling them apart from their neighbors comes down to reading the dirt and the plant damage rather than guessing based on fleeting glimpses. Moles make volcano-shaped mounds with a plug right in the middle or push up continuous surface ridges across the turf, while voles leave narrow open runways cut right through the grass blades and chew bark at ground level. Thirteen-lined ground squirrels dig clean, open holes measuring about two inches wide with no soil mounds around them at all, whereas pocket gophers strictly plug every active entrance hole tight with earth.
