Gophers and Gopher Control - Part 5 of 11 - What Gophers Eat

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Pocket gophers are voracious herbivores; although they tend to prefer forbs and roots the gopher will eat nearly any type of plant it comes across including grasses, shrubs, seedlings, and trees. Any animal matter consumed in its diet would most likely have been ingested by accident.

Pocket gophers are most likely to consume your plants in one of the following ways:

• Root feeding on plants they come across while foraging for food or searching for a mate. The gopher commonly will clip the roots off below the surface where the damage done is not apparent. Occasionally the gopher will clip the base of a plant to just above the surface.
  
• Pulling your plants down into their tunnel from below.
  
• Occasionally the gopher will venture up to a body length from its burrow opening to consume surface vegetation. This activity only seems to happen during the growing season.
  

Acknowledgment:

• Case, R. M., 1994. Pocket gophers: Prevention and control of wildlife damage. Department of Forestry, Fisheries
  and Wildlife. University of Nebraska
  
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology - Animal Diversity Web
  

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