Food Habits of the Plains Pocket Gopher on Western Nebraska Rangeland

Abstract

Plains pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius) were trapped during 10 months (June and July excluded) of 1974, 1975, and 1976 to determine their food habits. Using a microscopic technique, twenty species of grasses, forbs, and rushes were identified in the stomach contents of 141 pocket gophers. Of the total diet, forbs comprised 9.9%, grasses 44.9%, and rushes 14.8%. Root and leaf-stem materials were found to make up 30.9% and 38.7% of the diet, respectively. Winter food constituents were difficult to identify with 30.4% of the total diet being unidentified material. Gophers exhibited diet selectivity; major species in the vegetation were not necessarily major species in the diet.