Distribution
Plains pocket gophers are found throughout the Great Plains of North America ranging from southern Manitoba (Canada), and eastern North Dakota south to New Mexico and Texas in the United States, and as far east as the extreme western parts of Indiana. Eight subspecies are currently recognised, although some former subspecies have since been considered to be species in their own right, and are no longer included:
- Geomys bursarius bursarius - Canada, the Dakotas, Minnesota
- Geomys bursarius illinoensis - Illinois
- Geomys bursarius industrius - southwestern Kansas
- Geomys bursarius major - Texas, Oklahoma, eastern New Mexico
- Geomys bursarius majusculus - Iowa, eastern Nebraska and Kansas, northern Missouri
- Geomys bursarius missouriensis - eastern Missouri
- Geomys bursarius ozarkensis - Arkansas
- Geomys bursarius wisconsinensis - western Wisconsin
Fossil remains have been found as far south as Tennessee, indicating a late Pleistocene, early Holocene population. This would support the hypothesis that drier environmental conditions with extensive prairies extended further south during the Late Wisconsinan glacial period, supporting populations of Geomys and other prairie species such as thirteen-lined ground squirrels and prairie chickens.
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