Lisa Hiam holds a Mazama pocket gopher after trapping it in the Mima mounds of West Rocky Nature Preserve near Maytown April 13, 2011.
OLYMPIA (AP) — The federal government has proposed listing four subspecies of the Mazama pocket gopher for endangered species protection.
The Mazama pocket gopher is a species of small mammal that lives in prairie habitats in Washington and Oregon. They spend most of their time underground in tunnels, where they forage on grasses and forbs, and rarely surface.
The four subspecies proposed for endangered species protection exist solely in Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also proposed Monday to designate 9,234 acres (14 square miles) of critical habitat for the gophers in western Washington.
The critical habitat being proposed for protection is in Pierce and Thurston counties and includes federal, state, municipal and private lands. The eight areas proposed for protection include habitat at 91st Division Prairie, Marion Prairie, Olympia Regional Airport, Rocky Prairie, Tenalquot Prairie, West Rocky Prairie, Scatter Creek and Rock Prairie.
The federal government also determined that a fifth subspecies of pocket gopher, the Tacoma pocket gopher, to be extinct.
Pocket gophers get their name from external, fur-lined cheek pouches on the sides of their mouths that are used to carry plant material for food and nest-building, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. They grow to be 11 inches long and have short, nearly hairless tails that are highly sensitive and help them navigate in their underground tunnels.
The proposal is open for public comment for 60 days.
