56 



MISC. PUBLICATION 9 0, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



after five weeks they appear above ground with an inherited eager- 

 ness to take their place in the social life of the village. Feeding on 

 the short grama grass found in most dog towns or ranging out into 

 some near-by cultivated field, they soon take on growth. 



Approximately 1,500,000 acres within the State are infested with 

 prairie dogs. Since the diet of these rodents consists of grass and 

 other plant life on the range, and of such forage and grain crops as 

 alfalfa, clover, wheat, corn, barley, and oats in the cultivated regions, 

 great damage is caused each year. In one area on the eastern 

 boundary of Utah, some 512 square miles of infested land were 

 treated with poison during the summer of 1927. It required the 

 labor of 412 men for a day each and 15,000 pounds of poisoned-oat 

 bait to cover this area. 



POCKET GOPHEKS 



The Uinta pocket gopher is perhaps the most widely distributed of 

 the four species (Thomomys uinta and its relatives) found in Utah. 

 Inhabiting the fertile valleys where man's effort has made food more 

 abundant, and ranging over mountain slopes to an elevation of 

 10,000 feet, this burrower is found in most parts of the northern half 

 of the State, reaching southward well down into Tooele and Juab 

 Counties. 



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Figure 26. — Pocket-gopher tunnels and hills : a, Mounds of loose soil ; 6, laterals 

 leading to the mounds, usually closed with earth ; c, main runways, usually clean 



The pocket gopher is a vegetarian, living on roots, bulbs, and 

 tubers, but also includes seeds of grass and grain in his menu. His 

 tunnels or burrows are extended when in search of roots, which he 

 eats as found, or cuts up into pieces suitable for carrying in the two 

 fur-lined external cheek pouches. (Fig. 26.) 



It is evident that the pocket gopher has no hibernation period, 

 as activity goes on during the winter months. This is revealed in 

 long branching piles of earth that have been brought up from the 

 underground tunnels. 



From one to seven young are born to the litter, but it is not known 

 whether there is more than one litter in a season. The young when 

 about half grown move to unoccupied ground in the vicinity of the 

 home location and start new tunnels. 



It is sometimes discouraging to find signs of new activities in a 

 field that has been thoroughly trapped or poisoned, but when one 

 understands that new crops of gophers in some neighboring field 

 look for nothing better than vacant runways in which to set up 

 housekeeping, the discovery revives a determination to interest one's 

 neighbors in control methods. 



