71: Botta's Pocket Gopher
I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. Before we start with today’s animal, I want to emphasize that biological classification as understood by western society has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.
This is an excerpt from the Wikipedia page for Paul-Émile Botta (1802-1870 CE), an Italian-born, French-educated scientist whose most famous accomplishment was leading the first European excavations of Dur-Sharrukin, the capital of the Assyrian king Sargon II (ca. 762-705 BCE):
“Botta was selected to be naturalist on a voyage around the world. Although he had no formal medical training, he also served as the ship surgeon. Le Heros under Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly (1790–1849) left Le Havre April 8, 1826 and sailed south through the Atlantic Ocean, stopping in Rio de Janeiro and around Cape Horn. They traveled up the coast stopping at Callao, Mexico, and Alta California. Jean Baptiste Rives (1793–1833), the former secretary of the Kingdom of Hawaii, had convinced investors from the family of Jacques Laffitte to finance the voyage to promote trade to California and Hawaii, but Rives disappeared along with some of the cargo. After visiting the Hawaiian Islands they reached China on December 27, 1828. In late July, 1829, the Heros returned to Le Havre. On January 5, 1830 Botta defended his doctor's thesis.”
I love a lot of the details there – ship’s surgeon despite no medical training, Rives disappearing with the cargo, and defending his doctor’s thesis six months after returning from an around-the-world journey. But the most important part, from our perspective, is that stop in California from 1827-1828, when he collected an example of today’s animal: Botta’s pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae).
These cute little guys live throughout the southwestern USA and northern Mexico, including the southern parts of Colorado, especially the area around Pueblo/Walsenburg and into the Wet Mountains. Each individual gopher digs an extensive burrow with unused portions at its edges – a kind of demilitarized zone that serves as a buffer between them and a neighboring gopher, since they are such territorial animals. Their burrows can be up to five feet deep, with deeper “rooms” set aside for food storage and nesting, and shallower rooms used to feed on plant roots. Botta’s gophers use their teeth to dig, while many other types of gophers use their claws; teeth are hardier and enable the former to dig in a variety of soils and thus occupy a variety of ecosystems, from the desert to high altitude meadows. Their teeth also continuously grow throughout their lifetimes to compensate for all the wear and tear. They have poor eyesight, so use their whiskers and facial hair to sense their surroundings. They also use their tails to propel themselves backwards rapidly in case of encountering something bad.
All of this burrowing can significantly alter the landscape. They increase soil fertility by aerating the ground they are churning through, and increase plant diversity by allowing plants that would struggle in harder soil to grow atop their mounds. If they die or move on, their burrow will become a home for another animal that would struggle to build such an impressive home under its own power, like a toad or a snake. Geomorphologists have also found – using computer modelling – that decades and even centuries of gopher activity in a particular area can build up the distinctive features known as “Mima Mounds”.
Oh, and as for the other part of the name – the “pocket” – that refers to their cheeks, which are giant, fur-lined pockets used for carrying food and nesting materials.