pocket gopher

American  

noun

1. any of numerous burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae, of western and southern North America and Central America, having large, external, fur-lined cheek pouches.

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pocket gopher British  

noun

1. the full name for gopher

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Etymology

Origin of pocket gopher

1870–75, Amer.

Example Sentences

Perhaps the biggest success story was federally threatened Mazama pocket gophers, whose distribution increased 30% where conservation grazing occurred.

From Seattle Times

One of them—a tapeworm Gardner fished out of a camas pocket gopher—turned out to be a species new to science.

From Scientific American

Through root cropping and fertilization, southeastern pocket gophers are effectively cultivating a crop of roots that could provide more than 20% of their daily calories, the team reports today in Current Biology.

From Science Magazine

By digging long tunnels underground that promote plant growth and allow fairly easy root nibbling, these pocket gophers would be, as the paper put it, “the first farming nonhuman mammal.”

From New York Times

"The evil is revealing itself. It's just amazing. It's popping up all over like pocket gophers."

From Salon