Florida is full of turtles and tortoises. Unfortunately, those numbers decline as more and more people move to the Sunshine State. Gopher tortoises are among the declining populations and have been listed as threatened in some of their locations.

Habitat

Physical Characteristics

Babies, Food, and Social Groups

Threats and Dangers

What Is Being Done?

Gopher tortoises can be found in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, the southernmost parts of Louisiana, islands off the coasts of Georgia and Florida, and through out most of Florida, except for the Everglades. They frequent sandy transitional (forest and grassy) areas. Most of the gopher tortoises that exist in the wild today live on private lands with only a small amount residing on public, state, federal, and military held areas.

Gopher tortoises have a large dark brown to grayish-black shell that averages six to fifteen inches in diameter. They have elephantine hind feet and shovel-like forefeet with thick dark claws. They have a distinctive, yellowish unhinged plastron (or shell extension) that projects forward under the head on the bottom side of the shell. Indeed, it is this plastron that can be used in order to determine the sex of the animal. The female has a flat plastron while the male has a more concave one; juvenile individuals are almost impossible for the layman to sex.

Males sexually mature faster than females (13 – 21 years and 16 –21 years, respectively) but both sexes have a long life span, ranging from 40 to 60 years with some individuals reaching almost 100 years of age.

Gopher tortoises are solitary individuals and they have a low reproductive rate. Mating season is from April to June and not every female chooses to mate every year. Clutches are small – averaging a mere 6 eggs – and incubation lasts anywhere from 80 to 110 days. Unfortunately, the poorly guarded nests are susceptible to raiding by predators with up to 87% fatality eggs and hatchlings. Hatchlings themselves are subject to attack by everything from fire ants to raccoons. Up to 97% of hatchlings are lost within the first two years of life.

The surviving individuals feed on grasses, plants, and legumes and may supplement their diets with mushrooms, fleshy fruits, and possibly some small amounts of animal matter. Through their travels to find food, these tortoises contribute to the seeding of native grasses and help to add nutrients back to the soil in which they dig their burrows.

Although there are an estimated 1.2 million gopher tortoise in Florida alone, the population as a whole is continuing to decline. Since most of their habitat is on private lands, modern development is a huge threat to their lifestyles. Urban displacement, phosphate mining, and citrus production all have a large impact on the wild populations. As more roads are built, more tortoises are lost to vehicle accidents. Visiting tourists tend to capture them as pets. Farmers and ranchers, viewing them as pests in livestock areas, exterminate them on sight and it is suspected that agricultural chemicals are also having an adverse affect on the overall numbers.

Their habitat itself is changing. Since gopher tortoises favor a particular type of undergrowth, restrictions on regular burning – the natural burns that most uncontrolled forests would be subject to if left to nature’s devices – have made those areas less and less available. It is estimated that only 100 gopher tortoises exist in Louisiana at this time and numbers are consistently declining elsewhere.

Gopher tortoises are protected on all federal lands and have been listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This listing implies that commercial trade is allowed, providing a permit from the country of export is obtained and is a way of monitoring of international trade of this species. There is also a plan that has been proposed to institute regular controlled burning every five to ten years in tortoise habitats to ensure that tortoise friendly undergrowth continues to develop. It is recognized that the loss of the gopher tortoise would have an adverse affect on numerous other species; hopefully this will help ensure their protection on into the future.

Gopher tortoises are considered to be under special protection in most states, but are listed as endangered in the westernmost regions of their habitat. Only time will tell if they rally or if they reach full-endangered status.

Endangered Species