Knox Jones’s pocket gopher is a fossorial burrower found almost nowhere but west-central Texas sand country, San Angelo State Park and the Colorado River corridor sit right in its core range, and the species was only split out from the plains pocket gopher in 1989 based on genetic differences; the two still look identical above ground. It feeds underground on the roots and stems of yucca, sunflowers, and native grasses, rarely surfacing except to push soil from a burrow mound.
NatureServe ranks it S2, Imperiled, in Texas and G3, Vulnerable, globally, a genuine conservation-watch species rather than a common one. Records peak sharply in March and April, then drop to almost nothing by early summer, likely tracking when gophers push up fresh mounds rather than a true summer disappearance. The most recent listed observation is from October 2024.
Full species profile
