STUDY FINDS - Like something straight out of a Disney movie, a study finds that gophers worked to save an entire mountain. These little critters dug up bacteria and fungi that helped restore lost plant and animal life to the devastated mountain landscape. Forty years later, the 24-hour gopher experiment continues to yield results.
In 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted, destroying everything around it. Only ash and debris surrounded the area. There was no sign of animal and plant life returning, leaving the region a barren wasteland.
Out of curiosity, scientists wondered if digging up bacteria and fungi would help with soil recovery, bringing plants and, eventually, animals back to the area. Of course, this would require a lot of digging, so scientists turned to animals that loved to dig.
Gophers are small rodents that usually spell trouble when they appear. Their constant digging can damage plant life and cause soil erosion. These small rodents also chew on everything in sight, such as irrigation lines and cables, earning them the title of pests.
“They’re often considered pests, but we thought they would take old soil, move it to the surface, and that would be where recovery would occur,” says study author Michael Allen, a microbiologist at the University of California-Riverside, in a media release.