The largest of all Mexican pocket gophers, this subterranean rodent can be twice the size of related species in its family, yet remains one of the least known. Its known range is so tiny it could fit several times inside a single city. Like all pocket gophers, the Big Pocket Gopher spends almost its entire life underground, digging with its powerful forefeet and continuously growing incisors that compensate for the wear of gnawing through roots and soil. It lives in a very specific patch of land near the Gulf of Mexico coast in Veracruz state, where agricultural activity has progressively reduced the loose soil it needs to burrow. Its exceptional size within its family has not spared it from becoming one of the most threatened pocket gophers in Mexico.
A large rodent for a pocket gopher, noticeably larger than related species in the region. Compact, cylindrical body adapted for life underground, dark brown pelage, greatly reduced eyes and ears, and robust forefeet with long claws adapted for digging. It is distinguished from other pocket gophers in the region mainly by its much larger size.
It leaves no recognisable track due to its subterranean life. Its presence is revealed by fan-shaped earth mounds noticeably larger than those of other pocket gophers in the region, up to 30-40 cm in diameter, with the tunnel entrance plugged with loose soil from inside. Small, elongated droppings 1.5-2 cm long, slightly larger than those of other pocket gophers, are rarely visible as they remain inside the tunnel system. Mounds appear in lines following the layout of underground galleries, and its presence is also betrayed by plants that wither suddenly when their roots are cut from below.
Loose soil in low-lying coastal areas, with vegetation transitional between rainforest and agricultural land. Known from a very restricted area of the Gulf of Mexico coastal plain in Veracruz state, eastern Mexico, with no confirmed records outside this zone.
Herbivorous, feeding on roots, tubers and underground plant parts, as well as vegetation dragged down into the tunnel from the surface near the entrance.
Strictly solitary and territorial outside the breeding season, it spends almost its entire life underground in its system of galleries, like other pocket gophers.
Its known range is under 100 km², with all known individuals originating from a single locality. The ongoing conversion of its habitat to agricultural land leaves its populations in severe decline.
Conversion of the loose soil it depends on into agricultural land across the Veracruz coastal plain, alongside the extreme geographical restriction of the species to a single known locality.
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