Gophers feed on aboveground and underground parts of plants, always near the burrows. Some species consume food and animal feed, usually insects. They make considerable supplies of food from the seeds of herbaceous plants and cereal grains. Active in the morning and evening hours; The day is mostly spent in burrows. During the cold season, hibernate, the duration and timing of which strongly depend on the geographical location. In a number of species, along with hibernation, there is also a summer one, associated with a lack of feed.
Gophers are one of the longest sleeping animals. By the beginning of June, adult, well-fed males and females, who had no cubs this year, hiding in burrows for many months. Later, after rearing their offspring and having fattened enough fat, the mother-mothers go to bed. The least fattened animals – the yearlings, those born in the spring – fall into the torpor most recently. Summer hibernation passes into winter without waking up, if conditions so require and there is enough accumulated reserves.
The animals are stunned for up to nine months a year. Exhausted animals do not fall asleep and come out of the holes during warming. The organism of animals that hibernate, works cyclically: the active period – a prolonged numbness – again activity – and so on. This internal rhythm of the biochemical and physiological state of the organism is hereditary. Sleep gophers deeply. They will not be awakened by a loud sound, or a temporary increase in the temperature of the air from outside on the surface. In dozens of times, metabolic processes slow down in them, energy is consumed very sparingly.
