Pocket Gophers Are Underground Root 'Farmers'
Published:13 Jul.2022    Source:Cell Press

Pocket gophers are known for living solitary, underground lives, eating roots in North and Central American grasslands. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on July 11 have found that pocket gophers keep up with the high energy demands of their burrowing lifestyle by "farming" roots that grow into their tunnels. They calculate that these roots supply 20 to 60 percent of the gophers' need for daily calories.

 
"Southeastern pocket gophers are the first non-human mammalian farmers," says F. E. "Jack" Putz of the University of Florida, Gainesville. "Farming is known among species of ants, beetles, and termites, but not other mammals."