The Hispid Pocket Gopher lives underground from southern Mexico into northern Central America. Its coat is coarse, and some individuals have a white band around the lower back.
Its head-and-body length is about 21–27 cm, with a tail of about 7.5–9 cm. The coat is usually sparse and bristly, but individuals above 2,000 m have moderately denser fur. Some have a white band around the lower back.
It digs an underground burrow system, with shallow feeding tunnels connected to deeper nest and storage chambers. Burrows can exceed 60 m in length and 1 m in depth. Breeding has been recorded year-round, and females are reported to have about two young per litter.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.