Texas mammals

Baird's Pocket Gopher in Texas

Geomys breviceps

Native to Texas S4 Apparently Secure in Texas

Not listed as nonindigenous in Texas by USGS NAS; native to its Texas range.

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

GeomysBrevicepsBaird's Pocket Gopher (Geomys breviceps)
Photo: nautilus211 · CC0GeomysBrevicepsPhoto: Northcut · CC BY 4.0Baird's Pocket Gopher (Geomys breviceps)

Baird's Pocket Gopher in Texas, by the numbers

Common in Texas 54th most recorded of 197 mammals logged in Texas

1,585 occurrence records
338 with iNaturalist photos
Jul 10, 2026 Last seen in Texas

1,585 total records count every Texas occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 300; the monthly chart covers the 1,576 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Baird's Pocket Gopher in Texas

Most sightings fall in September to May.

1,576 Texas occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Texas records (table)
MonthRecords
January119
February171
March164
April115
May119
June83
July52
August97
September161
October178
November136
December181

Monthly baird's pocket gopher occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Texas.

Seasonality

Year-round in Texas, with recorded sightings peaking in September–May.

Occurrence map

Where Baird's Pocket Gopher has been recorded in Texas

300 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

300 Texas records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area 16
Fort Boggy State Park 5
Fort Parker State Park 3
Angelina National Forest 3
Alazan Bayou Wildlife Management Area 3
Brazos Bend State Park 2
Daingerfield State Park 2
Candy Abshier Wildlife Management Area 1

Protected places with the most baird's pocket gopher sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Texas

CountyRecords
Brazos County 218
Cooke County 210
Denton County 153
Anderson County 71
Grayson County 68
Leon County 65
Grimes County 50
Burleson County 44
Harris County 43
Robertson County 39
Smith County 35
Galveston County 31
59 other counties 558

The complete county distribution, spread across 71 Texas counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Baird’s pocket gopher digs through the sandy soils of East Texas, and its records cluster at Bastrop State Park’s namesake Lost Pines, Sam Houston National Forest, and Brazos Bend State Park, all sitting on the loose, easily worked ground this burrower needs to push its network of feeding tunnels.

Records stay fairly steady through the year, with the strongest counts in February, October, and December rather than one clean season, and the most recent sighting landed within the past few days. With 1,585 records, the species ranks common in Texas, at the 74th percentile among the state’s mammals, and NatureServe lists it S4, Apparently Secure, a notch below the S5 rating most of its Texas cousins carry.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

GeomysBreviceps
Full species profile Baird's Pocket Gopher Geomys breviceps Size 17.7 cm7 in Weight 177 g6.2 oz Lifespan Up to 12 yr View the full profile

More mammals in Texas in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"