Abstract
Research on the distributions of 2 species of pocket gopher in Kansas, the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) and the yellow-faced pocket gopher (Cratogeomys castanops), revealed large tracts of land within their distributions that neither species occupies. We hypothesized that habitat and land-use practices in these tracts exclude pocket gophers. To test this hypothesis, we compared the relative frequencies of soil-texture and land-cover types within unoccupied tracts with those in surrounding tracts where pocket gophers occur. Our results indicated that the unoccupied tracts consisted largely of areas with fine-textured soils that are planted to crops. The crops, mainly corn, wheat, and grain sorghum, were harvested and disked annually, and even the roadside ditches adjacent to the cropland were plowed and planted. We concluded that pocket gophers are unable to inhabit these areas because land-use practices have destabilized the habitats, eliminating both refugia and dispersal corridors.
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