The Gopher
Categories:
STEEL TRAPS AND THE ART OF TRAPPING.
This remarkable little animal somewhat resembles the Mole in its
general appearance and habits. It is also commonly known as the
Canada Pouched Rat, and is principally found west of the Mississippi
and northward. It is a burrowing animal, and like the Mole drives
its subterranean tunnels in all directions, throwing up little
hillocks at regular intervals of from five to twenty feet. Its
body is thick set and clumsy and
about ten inches long, and its
Mole-like claws are especially adapted for digging. Its food consists
of roots and vegetables, and its
long and projecting incisors are powerful agents in cutting the
roots which cross its path in making its burrow. The most striking
characteristic of the animal, and that from which it takes its
name, consists in the large cheek pouches which hang from each
side of the mouth and extend back to to shoulders. They are used as
receptacles of food which the animal hurriedly gathers when above
ground, afterward returning to its burrow to enjoy its feast at its
leisure. It was formerly very commonly and erroneously believed
that the Gopher used its pouches in conveying the earth from its
burrow, and this is generally supposed at the present day, but
it is now known that the animal uses these pockets only for the
conveyance of its food.
The color of the fur is reddish-brown on the upper parts, fading
to ashy-brown on the abdomen, and the feet are white.
In making its tunnels, the dirt is brought to the surface, thus
making the little mounds after the manner of the mole. After having
dug its tunnel for several feet the distance becomes so great as
to render this process impossible, and the old hole is carefully
stopped up and a new one made at the newly excavated end of the
tunnel, the animal continuing on in its labors and dumping from
the fresh orifice. These mounds of earth occur at intervals on
the surface of the ground, and although no hole can be discovered
beneath them, they nevertheless serve to indicate the track of
the burrow, which lies several inches beneath.
The Gopher is a great pest to western cultivators, and by its root
feeding and undermining propensities does extensive injury to crops
generally. They may be successfully trapped in the following manner:
Strike a line between the two most recent earth mounds, and midway
between them remove a piece of the sod. By the aid of a trowel
or a sharp stick the burrow may now be reached. Insert your hand
in the tunnel and enlarge the interior sufficiently to allow the
introduction of No. (0) steel trap. Set the trap flatly in the
bottom of the burrow, and then laying a piece of shingle or a few
sticks across the excavation replace the sod. Several traps may
be thus set in the burrows at considerable distances apart, and a
number of the animals thus taken. The traps are sometimes inserted
in the burrows from the hillocks, by first finding the hole and
then enlarging it by inserting the arm and digging with the hand
beneath. The former method, however, is preferable.
The skin of the Gopher may be pulled off the body either by cutting
up the hind less, as described in reference to the Fox,
or by making the incision from the lower jaw down the neck, as decided
for the muskrat, a simple board stretcher being used.