V2 WILD ANIMALS OF OLACIEE NATIONAL PARK. 



and, after the doorway has been securely packed fidl of earth, eaten 

 at leisure. 



Long front claws" and ])oworful muscles peculiarly fit them for 

 digging and tunneling underground, and their burrows are extended 

 day after day through the rich soil, a few inches to a foot below the 

 surface, where the endless variety of roots and bulbs and under- 

 ground vegetation encountered furnishes them ample food through- 

 out the year. There is plenty of moisture in their food so that 

 water is not necessary, and they rarely leave the burrows. Occa- 

 sionally in spring males do leave in search of mates, but generally 

 there is sufficient underground communication to make even this 

 unnecessary. 



Diu-ing most of the year there is but one pocket gopher to a set of 

 burrows, and while their lives may seem like solitary confinement at 

 hard labor, these rodents are evidently as happy and contented as 

 other and more sociable animals. Their houses are comfortable and 

 without sudden changes of temperature. They have clean, sweet- 

 smelling, fresh earth walls, which are always being extended into 

 new ground as the old burrows are abandoned. Roomy chambers are 

 built along the tunnels, and the four to six young are brought forth 

 and cared for in dry nest-chambers, while food is stored in other 

 chambers excavated for the purpose. Their small eyes and ears are 

 of minor importance in the dai'k underground galleries, but the sensi- 

 tive nose and tip of tail guide them in their shuttlelike motions back- 

 ward and forward through the tunnels, and apparently they travel 

 Avith equal facility in either direction. As soon as the young are old 

 enough to make their ow^n burrows and get their own food they strike 

 off in new galleries, and soon each is launched on its independent 

 career. When little more than half grown they usually leave their 

 mother's burrow and may not see another of their kind until the fol- 

 lowing summer when the sex impulse urges them to search for mates. 



They are sturdy fighters, and with large chisel-like incisors and 

 powerful muscles they defend their homes against most enemies of 

 their own size, except the weasel and the gopher snake, which quickly 

 dispatch them when once an entrance is gained to their tunnels. 

 Hawks, owls, bobcats, foxes, and coyotes snap them up occasionally 

 when they are throwing out earth from their burrows, but their 

 main protection is in keeping well out of sight and thoroughly 

 barricaded under ground. ■ 



On farms they do a great deal of mischief in destroying crops. 

 They are fond of potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, onions, and prac- 

 tically all underground crops, and they cut the roots from fruit 

 trees and berry bushes, cut the growing grain and draw it into 

 their burro w^s to be eaten, and with their mounds of earth cover 

 up the young grain, clover, and grass. "VVliile practically harm- 



