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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

What’s the only farming mammal besides us? Maybe this buck-toothed rodent

A species of North American gopher fertilizes and harvests roots, encouraging their growth.
The head of a southeastern pocket gopher visible in the entrance of a tunnel surrounded by removed earth

The southeastern pocket gopher spurs the growth of roots in its underground tunnels. Credit: Veronica Selden

Gophers are master miners, digging tunnels that can exceed 100 metres in length. To keep up with the energy demands of their burrowing lifestyle, one species of gopher promotes the growth of underground roots and harvests them, researchers report1.

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Nature 607, 425 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01907-5

References

  1. Selden, V. & Putz, F. E. Curr. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.003 (2022).

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