Look: Pocket gophers farm like humans in one surprising way

Harvest Season But they’re not the only animals that know how to cultivate. by Jennifer Walter July 11, 2022 Veronica Selden

Agriculture might seem like a uniquely human practice.

Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images After all, the adaptation of farms and irrigation systems allowed our species to settle and build great civilizations.

So it might come as a surprise that some animals can also cultivate crops.

Sladic/E+/Getty Images

Insects like leafcutter ants and ambrosia beetles sustain their own fungus gardens, having mastered the practice of agriculture millions of years before humans.

Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images

Researchers recently discovered that a common mammal — one that can be a menace to human farmers — might have a habit of growing its own food, too.

Veronica Selden Writing this week in the journal Current Biology, researchers explain that common pocket gophers cultivate food sources underground in a way similar to human agriculture.

Norm Douglas The gophers are known to yank entire plants underground and also snack on roots growing beneath the soil as they excavate hideaways.

But instead of destroying all the roots in their path, the gophers fertilize the ground with their poops, leading to better growing conditions.

Yuval Helfman / 500px/500Px Plus/Getty Images

redmal/E+/Getty Images Healthier soil leaves the gophers with rows of food that consistently replenish — kind of like a farm.

When the researchers removed gophers from their tunnels for up to 44 days, they saw that the number of roots growing within their tunnels declined.

Though gophers don’t plant seeds, their methods of tending to crops might meet the definition of agriculture.

Current Biology/Selden et al

“If farming requires that crops be planted, then gophers don’t qualify,” explains study co-author Francis E. Putz in a press release.

Thanayu Jongwattanasilkul / EyeEm/EyeEm/Getty Images

At the very least, gophers appear to be master caretakers of the plants growing in their burrows.

Veronica Selden And their strategies benefit the entire ecosystem so that creatures living above ground can also benefit from a plentiful harvest.

Look: Pocket gophers farm like humans in one surprising way

Agriculture might seem like a uniquely human practice.

So it might come as a surprise that some animals can also cultivate crops.

Insects like leafcutter ants and ambrosia beetles sustain their own fungus gardens, having mastered the practice of agriculture millions of years before humans.

But instead of destroying all the roots in their path, the gophers fertilize the ground with their poops, leading to better growing conditions.

When the researchers removed gophers from their tunnels for up to 44 days, they saw that the number of roots growing within their tunnels declined.

Though gophers don’t plant seeds, their methods of tending to crops might meet the definition of agriculture.

“If farming requires that crops be planted, then gophers don’t qualify,” explains study co-author Francis E. Putz in a press release.

“But this seems like a far too narrow definition for anyone with a more horticultural perspective in which crops are carefully managed — such as fruit trees in forests — but not necessarily planted.”

At the very least, gophers appear to be master caretakers of the plants growing in their burrows.

Thanks for reading,
head home for more!

Look: Pocket gophers farm like humans in one surprising way

Agriculture might seem like a uniquely human practice.

So it might come as a surprise that some animals can also cultivate crops.

Insects like leafcutter ants and ambrosia beetles sustain their own fungus gardens, having mastered the practice of agriculture millions of years before humans.

But instead of destroying all the roots in their path, the gophers fertilize the ground with their poops, leading to better growing conditions.

When the researchers removed gophers from their tunnels for up to 44 days, they saw that the number of roots growing within their tunnels declined.

Though gophers don’t plant seeds, their methods of tending to crops might meet the definition of agriculture.

“If farming requires that crops be planted, then gophers don’t qualify,” explains study co-author Francis E. Putz in a press release.

“But this seems like a far too narrow definition for anyone with a more horticultural perspective in which crops are carefully managed — such as fruit trees in forests — but not necessarily planted.”

At the very least, gophers appear to be master caretakers of the plants growing in their burrows.

Thanks for reading, head home for more!

Thanks for reading,
head home for more!