i think you got confused. What montana Bob posted is a gopher, what you posted is like gopher slayer said a mole. You might have got confused in the nickname "Pocket Gopher"

Umm...I'm a biology major, and a very avid naturalist. I do plenty of research on rodents. If only I could count the number of field guides I own. Anyways, like I said on that other thread, that picture was of a North American pocket gopher (Geomys family) of which there are several species. These rodents feed on a variety of plant items, chiefly roots and stems of weeds and grasses. Moles on the other hand are from the family Talpidae which includes moles, desmans, and shrew-moles. The North American moles or New World moles are divided into the Subfamily Talpinae and of this group there are six moles on the continent, seven if you count the shrew-mole. All are insectivores and related on this continent only to the shrew. Not even close to a gopher. This is a mole:



What you guys call "gophers" are actually ground squirrels.

P.S. I finally can relate to all these gopher posts. I was genuinely confused as to why your "gophers" actually surfaced, to actually be shootable. Anyways, here in California, we love to hunt ground squirrels. We have our own species, the california ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi). Peace out.