About 200 gophers will be caught and have small amounts of
tissue removed as part of a statewide sample to determine through
DNA testing the distribution of subspecies of the Northern and
Valley Pocket Gopher species, said Mike Douglas, a senior research
scientist at the university.
He will be conducting the tests, he said.
The study began when $75,000 was requested in 2003 from the
Colorado General Assembly for an in-depth study of both gopher
species, said Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Gary
Skiba.
The request for money from the state came after two conservation
groups filed a petition March 20, 2003 claiming that pocket gophers
in Douglas County are a distinct and highly endangered subspecies
of the Northern Pocket Gopher.
The petition asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add the
Douglas County Pocket Gopher to the Endangered Species List because
the explosive growth in the county is paving the gopher into
extinction.
One of the conservation groups filing the petition claims there
might be only 500-1,000 of the subspecies gophers left.
The service is still reviewing the petition, Skiba
said.
To compare the genetics of the individual gophers, the
tail-tissue tests will amplify areas of DNA between “primers,” or
already-identified genes, he said.
The primers will act as bookmarks, Douglas said.
The tests will look at DNA from both the nuclei and mitochondria
from gopher cells.
As part of the study, a few gophers will be killed as “voucher”
specimens, he said.
The pelts of these animals will wind up in museums where they
will act as a record of the species and serve future scientists who
study gophers, Douglas said.
It is too early to tell if any of the gophers that will be
trapped in Douglas County will be voucher specimens, Douglas
said.
University of Colorado biology professor Jeff Mitton concluded
in the summer of 2003 that the Douglas County Pocket Gopher was
nearly identical to another subspecies with a range to the south
and east of Douglas County.
He compared DNA from samples of the two subspecies.
“While it [Mitton’s study] gave us some information, the feeling
was that it wasn’t as comprehensive as we wanted,” Skiba
said.
Thus the request for money from the assembly to fund another
study, he said.
In the trapping procedure, the gophers are caught in traps
placed in their underground burrows, Douglas said.
Then they are anesthetized, and a small piece of each animal’s
tail is removed as a genetic sample, he said.
They are monitored until their tails stop bleeding, and then
released back into their burrows, Douglas said.
This process sounds simple enough, but trapping gophers can be
difficult work, he said.
“They don’t like to be out of the ground and they’ve got big
teeth,” Douglas said. “They’re a handful.”
The Douglas County Pocket Gopher was first described as distinct
in the 1930s by mammologist F.W. Miller.
He described them as being bigger and having lighter fur than
other nearby subspecies.