The Pocket Gophers (Genus Thomomys) of Utah: University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Vol. 1 No. 1Durrant, Stephen David
Science
The Pocket Gophers (Genus Thomomys) of Utah: University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History, Vol. 1 No. 1
Durrant, Stephen David
Pocket gophers -- Utah
_Remarks._--This race is limited to the Oquirrh Mountains, a high
mountain range that lies parallel to, and just west of the Wasatch
Mountains, in Utah, Salt Lake and Tooele counties. These mountains were
connected in past times to the Wasatch Mountains by the Transverse
Range, and by a sand and gravel bar deposited by Pleistocene Lake
Bonneville. The Jordan River in its course from Utah Lake to the Great
Salt Lake has cut a channel through the aforementioned bar. This
channel has been cut to the level of the surrounding valleys as is
indicated by the meandering nature of the stream through this part of
its course. As a result the Oquirrh Mountains are relatively isolated.
Although separated from the Wasatch Mountains by the Jordan River
Valley only a few miles wide, the pocket gophers are distinct on each
mountain. A population of _T. bottae_ is interposed between the two
mountain ranges as is indicated by specimens from Riverton, six miles
north of the Transverse Range. The populations of _bottae_ are
subspecifically the same on the two sides of the Jordan River.
On the east side of the Oquirrh Mountains, pocket gophers collected
from the Jordan Valley up Rose Canyon to about 5,000 feet elevation
were all of the species _T. bottae_. Between 5,000 and 6,000 feet there
is an area in which the ranges of _bottae_ and _talpoides_ overlap.
When trapping, it is possible to predict what species will be taken by
the types of burrows and soil. Gophers of the _bottae_ group have their
burrows in the areas of the deepest soil and heaviest vegetation,
whereas the areas of shallow, rocky soil covered with sparse vegetation
are the habitat of _talpoides_. Above 6,000 feet the only gopher
encountered is _talpoides_. Along Settlement Creek on the west side of
the Oquirrh Mountains, which is the type locality of _oquirrhensis_,
_bottae_ and _talpoides_ have essentially the same vertical
distribution as in Rose Canyon. On this mountain the two species appear
to be in competition.
The available information, based on collections, indicates that the
Oquirrh Mountains are the only mountains west of the Wasatch Range upon
which _talpoides_ occurs. In Utah, all other mountains to the west, as
far as known, are inhabited by subspecies of of _Thomomys bottae_.
_Specimens examined._--Total, 41, as follows: _Tooele
County_: Settlement Creek, Oquirrh Mountains, 6,500 ft., 14.
_Salt Lake County_: Rose Canyon, Oquirrh Mountains, 5,650
ft., 27.
=Thomomys talpoides uinta= Merriam
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