Meet Idaho’s smallest miner, the pocket gopher

For many of Idaho’s hibernating creatures, living below ground while Old Man Winter pays his annual visit is just a temporary lifestyle fix, like folks going to Arizona for warm January days on the golf course. But for the pocket gopher, subterranean living is a full-time job with no PTO.

The pocket gopher is quite acclimated to dirt life. Chances are you’ve seen its tailings of dirt snaking across the landscape. And when you work a nine-to-nine job, that hard work adds up – a pocket gopher’s burrow system can tally as much as five tons of soil a year. Sure, that might not be too tall of an order for a modern skip loader, but when your hands are the size of nickels you might be at it for a while.

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