Meeting with an underground animal

We recently found around the volunteer house at the Reserve a small gopher Orthogeomys cherriei. These rodents are particularly difficult to observe because they have fosorial habits: they build a complex system of tunnels and are specially adapted to this lifestyle.

Their body is tubular and has no distinct neck; their eyes and ears are small, but they have powerful forelegs with long claws to dig their tunnels perfectly. They feed on roots and tubers such as “tiquizque”, the peach palm, cassava, and banana. They carry their food in large cheek pouches to the storage areas in their burrows. This species is endemic to the area - it is present from the Nicaraguan south Caribbean to the northeast of our country.  Through 2009 the mammal list in the Reserve count 103 species including this peculiar animal.

TALTUZA, Orthogeomys cherriei