Gophers in northern Mexico?

[DoomsDave]

I was inspired by Adam (Hammer) and his post for Gopher City where he wants to plant palms near his house that won't end up as gopher poop.

I know palms live in Mexico, perhaps gophers, too? If so, if you know, share the knowledge with us, in the spirit of palm nuttiness.

Perhaps you're in a position to see if non-native types resist gophers, too? We'd sure like to know about that too.

Thanks muchas gracias, and forgive my poor Espaniol.

[XYZ]

Yes, Dave. The largest pocket gophers of all occur in highlands of southern Mexico, through Guatemala to central Honduras. While not as abundant as commensal gophers in the US, can be huge PITA to farmers. They are hell on subsistence corn crops, etc. grown on sandy soils. I once watched from afar as one dragged a 6'+ macadamia sapling into its burrow, roots first. Mayan pest control guy, known as the village "taltuzero", came out for a spell of trapping and ridded us of the problem. Probably not actually this big, but seem the size of a cat.

See Orthogeomys grandis.

J

[GottmitAlex]

My parents have a summer home ranch in the outskirts of Tecate, Mexico. For location purposes, the ranch is a walking distance from a very famous Spa "Rancho La Puerta". (West side of Tecate. Mex)

That said, Among their palmetum,, they have a few Phoenix Canarienses, several Robustas and filiferas. Non of which have been attacked by gophers. And believe me, they do have a gopher, rabbit and hare problem. Gopher's go-to plant over there are the blue agaves. Every so often the "spear" disappears from one of them and a mound appears where the spear was. It's amazing.  They do have trees galore throughout the property.  Gophers like the fruit trees over any small pine and/or persian silk trees on the premises.

The palms they have are 15-20 years old already. 

 

I'll upload some pics of their palm trees next time I visit. Here are a couple my sister sent me from last night and this morning. I must say, the views over there are nothing less than breathtaking.

 

 

 

[GottmitAlex]

Here is a picture of two of the Phoenix's as promised.

(That is the Cuchuma mountain against the backdrop)

 

 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

The trunk on that cidp looks beefy.

[GottmitAlex]

It's massively wide. It looks slimmer in the picture I uploaded because I did not crop it 25%. So it's not proportional to the original. But looking at the palm 10 years ago, I said to myself I could never have one of those in my narrow garden. I opted for the robusta. The CIDP is about 20 years old. 

[DoomsDave]

On 11/7/2016, 3:08:28, stone jaguar said:

Yes, Dave. The largest pocket gophers of all occur in highlands of southern Mexico, through Guatemala to central Honduras. While not as abundant as commensal gophers in the US, can be huge PITA to farmers. They are hell on subsistence corn crops, etc. grown on sandy soils. I once watched from afar as one dragged a 6'+ macadamia sapling into its burrow, roots first. Mayan pest control guy, known as the village "taltuzero", came out for a spell of trapping and ridded us of the problem. Probably not actually this big, but seem the size of a cat.

See Orthogeomys grandis.

J

According to this, they're up to a foot long. As big as a small cat, for sure.

http://eol.org/pages/129583/details#morphology

 

[XYZ]

Dave:

Unlike the case in the 'States and much of the Old World, mammal collections are mostly still "light" in the Neotropics. This can lead to lots of odd max sizes and weights, not to mention big apparent distributional hiatuses.

I can assure you from seeing freshly killed material up close that some O. grandis easily exceed 35 cm (14") and 1.5 kg (3.25 lb) in the western Guatemalan highlands making them the largest pocket gopher sp.

J