Attwater’s pocket gopher is a Texas near-endemic tied to the sandy soils of the southeastern Piney Woods and post oak savannah, exactly the belt that Bastrop State Park, Sam Houston National Forest, and Brazos Bend State Park sit within. NatureServe rates it S4, Apparently Secure, in the state, and its 1,077 records make it one of the better-documented burrowing rodents in Texas.
Records peak sharply in February, more than double the summer low points, which likely reflects when fresh mound-building becomes visible at the surface after cooler, wetter months soften the ground, rather than a true population spike. The species still shows up mostly through trap and survey work; a fossorial rodent that spends nearly all its time underground rarely gets photographed the way a deer or bird does. With 1,077 records it sits solidly in the common bucket for Texas mammals, a reasonable showing for a species surveyed across several sandy-soil habitat blocks rather than one narrow site.
Full species profile
