Merriam's pocket gopher
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The Merriam- gopher ( Cratogeomys merriami, formerly Pappogeomys merriami ) is a occurring in eastern Mexico Species from the family of pocket gophers. The specific epithet honors the merriami American zoologists, ornithologists and ethnographers Clinton Hart Merriam.
Features
The Merriam- pocket rat has a head -body length of 14-26 cm and a tail length of 6-13 cm. The total length is thus 20-39 cm. It is 225-900 g in weight, the average weight is 800 g, the width of the skull of adult animals is usually more than 26 mm. The coat color of the Merriam- gopher is highly variable. The color of their top ranges from dull chestnut brown to slate black, the underside is similarly colored, but lighter.
Distribution and habitat
The Merriam- gopher is common in eastern Mexico. It is native to grasslands, temperate pine and oak forests as well as agriculturally used land as grazing land. The habitat extends to a height of 1800-4000 meters in the southern part of the valley of Mexico, the Sierra de Las Cruces and Sierra de Ajusco, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl to the area as well as the Río Lerma to the Valley of Toluca.
Way of life
Your front teeth are very long and are finished with a variety of plant food of thorny cacti and crops up to pine needles and seeds. They, like all pocket gophers a kind bag hairy skin of each cheek to carry food to the nest. On farm and pasture land it is considered a " pest ", as it not only erodes the vegetation, but stirs up by the excavation activities for their construction the earth. She is a loner, little is known about their activities during the year and the frequency of their occurrence known.