The Northern Pocket Gopher is a medium sized, stocky rodent with a short neck, small, flattened head, small ears, small eyes, large-clawed, front feet, and visible incisors.

It has brown to yellowish-brown, short, soft fur, with pale underparts. Pocket gophers (Northern pocket gopher shown here) are stout-bodied rodents with small ears and eyes and large clawed front paws. The northern pocket gopher(Thomomys talpoides) was first described in writing by Lewis and Clark, who encountered it on April 9, 1805 at the mouth of the Knife Riverin what is now North Dakota. It has soft reddish-brown upper fur and a … The northern pocket gopher has the widest distribution of all pocket gophers--from Manitoba to Colorado, and from the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges eastward to Minnesota. Pocket gopher, (family Geomyidae), any of 38 species of predominantly North and Central American rodents named for their large, fur-lined cheek pouches.

Its weight varies from 2 3/4 to 4 3/5 ounces (Burt and Grossenheider 1976).

Local populations are separated by unsuitable Their large front teeth are used to loosen soil and rocks while digging, as well as to cut and eat roots. Disjunct populations occur in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Like all pocket gophers, they have a tube-shaped body, very small eyes and ears, short and smooth These animals are often rich brown or yellowish brown, but also grayish or closely approaching local soil color and have white markings under the chin. The “pockets” open externally on each side of the mouth and extend from the face to the shoulders; they can be everted for cleaning. The Northern Pocket Gopher, so named for its large, external, fur-lined cheek pouches, measures about 8 inches length in total, with a short, nearly hairless tail of 2 1/2 inches. The northern pocket gopheris nearly ground squirrel size (total length 6 ½ to just over 9 inches (165-235 mm), it weighs 2 ¾ to 4 5/8 ounces (78-130 g).