Texas mammals

Llano Pocket Gopher in Texas

Geomys texensis

Native to Texas S2 Imperiled 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.

Llano Pocket Gopher in Texas, by the numbers

Occasional in Texas 84th most recorded of 197 mammals logged in Texas

406 occurrence records
104 with iNaturalist photos
May 24, 2026 Last seen in Texas

406 total records count every Texas occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the map plots a georeferenced sample of 300.

When to look for the Llano Pocket Gopher in Texas

Most sightings fall in December to March.

406 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
January41
February47
March68
April22
May15
June11
July68
August13
September11
October25
November33
December52

Monthly llano pocket gopher occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Texas.

Seasonality

Year-round in Texas, with recorded sightings peaking in December–March, with a smaller rise in July.

Occurrence map

Where Llano 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
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area 12
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park 4
Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area 2
Lyndon B. Johnson State Park & Historic Site 2

Protected places with the most llano 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
Mason County 124
Llano County 96
Gillespie County 46
Medina County 41
Lampasas County 39
San Saba County 14
McCulloch County 10
Coleman County 9
Blanco County 7
Concho County 4
Uvalde County 4
Zavala County 4
4 other counties 8

The complete county distribution, spread across 16 Texas counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Llano pocket gopher exists nowhere outside central Texas. Its entire documented range sits within the state, centered on the Llano Uplift country around Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, the Hill Country, and Devils River State Natural Area, granite and limestone terrain with the loose, diggable soil this burrowing rodent depends on.

That narrow range shows up in its conservation numbers: NatureServe rates it Imperiled (S2) in Texas, a serious rank for a species with nowhere else to retreat if local habitat fragments. With 406 records, it lands in the occasional tier among Texas mammals, a modest count that likely reflects how hard an animal that spends nearly its whole life underground is to document, rather than true scarcity. No single month dominates the record set, consistent with a species detected mostly through surface mounds and incidental digging rather than seasonal above-ground activity.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

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"