A chubby body, short tail and legs — I realized that I was seeing a plains pocket gopher. Pocket gophers (not to be confused with the "gopher" of Minnesota fame, which is not really a gopher ...

Pocket gophers are so named because they have fur ... Its front feet have long, curved claws that are good for digging the complex burrow systems it inhabits. Native to North America, groundhogs ...

74, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 517-536 (20 pages) Five new species of Aphodius (dyspistus, tanytarsus, hubbelli, platypleurus, and pholetus), collected in the burrows of pocket gophers (Geomys pinetus ...