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._--Wah Wah Springs, the type locality of _wahwahensis_, are on
the summit of a low pass in the Wah Wah Mountains in the desert of west
central Utah. The surrounding valleys, for many miles, as far as my
investigations show, are not inhabited by pocket gophers, except the
Desert Range Experiment Station of the United States Forest Service in
Pine Valley to the west of these mountains. There, pocket gophers were
obtained which are intergrades between _centralis_ and _wahwahensis_.
In five out of seven characters investigated these gophers resemble
_wahwahensis_, to which they are here referred. Study of the topography
reveals the probable means by which the animals reached this valley.
The long axis of the Wah Wah Mountains is north and south, but a
westward arm forms the northern boundary of Pine Valley. Around springs
in this westward projecting arm workings of pocket gophers were found.
With the development of water at the Desert Range Experiment Station,
and subsequent improvement of forage, these animals probably came down
into the valley from the springs to the north.
The terrain between the Desert Range Experiment Station in Pine Valley
and Snake Creek (where _centralis_ occurs) to the west is not inhabited
by pocket gophers at present. This area, however, forms part of the
southwest mainland of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, which mainland in
times past was probably suitable for pocket gophers. Since the close of
the Pleistocene, aridity has rendered most of it unfit for pocket
gophers, and they remain only in isolated areas where suitable
environments still persist.
_Specimens examined._--Total, 18, distributed as follows:
_Millard County_: Desert Range Experiment Station, United
States Forest Service, Sec. 9, T. 25 S, R. 17 W, Salt Lake
Base Meridian, 6. _Beaver County_: Wah Wah Springs, Wah Wah
Mountains, 30 mi. W Milford, 6,500 ft., 12 (2, M. V. Z.).
=Thomomys bottae dissimilis= Goldman
_Thomomys perpallidus dissimilis_ Goldman, Journ. Washington
Acad. Sci., 21:425, October 19, 1931.
_Thomomys bottae dissimilis_ Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc.
Washington, 48:156, October 31, 1935.
_Thomomys perpallidus aureus_ Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna 39:75,
November 15, 1915; Barnes, Bull. Univ. Utah, 12 (No. 15):85,
April, 1922; Bull. Univ. Utah, 17 (No. 12):100, June, 1927.
_Type._--Female, adult, skin and skull, No. 158526, U. S. National
Museum (Biological Surveys Collection); E slope Mount Ellen, Henry
Mountains, 8,000 ft., Garfield County, Utah; October 15, 1908;
collected by W. H. Osgood; original number 3677 (after Goldman, type
not seen).
_Range._--Known only from the type locality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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