Pocket Gopher Trapping Surveys

The northern pocket gopher is native to Wyoming and its range overlaps that of the sensitive Wyoming pocket gopher. Wyoming pocket gophers are the smallest of the genus Thomomys. Their limited range in south-central Wyoming and general rarity across the landscape has caused them to be listed as Sensitive in the state, requiring further management to protect the species. In the fall of 2022, Grouse Mountain conducted surveys to determine what species of pocket gopher inhabited a gopher complex identified by a BLM Rawlins Field Office biologist on a proposed oil and gas well location. Grouse Mountain biologists set live traps where fresh gopher mounds were identified and all gophers captured were the more prevalent and non-sensitive northern pocket gopher. At the request of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, our biologists also conducted vegetation surveys at trap sites to examine the hypothesized relationship between pocket gopher species and certain shrub communities.