The Gopher Tortoise
Growing up in South Florida was very special for me. When I stop to think about all of the animals that I have seen in their natural environment I know that I have been blessed. Some of the animals I’ve seen in the wild will never ever be seen by some people, not even in captivity. They’re just gone, they no longer exist. Some are just barely surviving the conditions that we are forcing them to live under. Habitat loss is the biggest problem. It’s amazing to see how some endangered species of wild life have learned to cope with the urban sprawl of man. Probably the best example of coping with urban sprawl here in South Florida is the Burrowing Owl. The Burrowing owl decided to find a place where no human would build a house. They found that people do not build houses between the runways at Miami International Airport. In fact, the little Burrowing Owl is thriving between the runways at all of our major airports in South Florida. Anyone that knows me or reads my stories can tell you that, I don’t believe for one second that noise has a bad effect on any ecosystem , obviously it doesn’t bother the burrowing owls.
Unfortunately, not all of our endangered animals have the option or the ability to cross the concrete and asphalt of our developed areas to find peaceful respite in a jet-way.
The Gopher Tortoise comes to mind. I‘ve searched everywhere and no one can tell me just how long a gopher tortoise can live. It is said that they may live 40 to 50 years.
Habitat loss is one of many threats that the gopher tortoise has to endure. Growing up in the southeast Florida I never got to see the gopher tortoise in the wild. When we went camping up in the Northwest parts of the Cypress forest, (that was in the area of lake Okeechobee and west to Fort Myers) I would find gopher tortoise burrows. Now and then, I could catch a glimpse of a gopher tortoise in its burrow. There were times that I would catch a gopher tortoise and show it to my parents. My parents always reminded me that I had way too many animals at home as it was, at least they thought I did, and so I would let the tortoise go exactly where I’d found it.
The gopher tortoise’s home is, as I said, a burrow. A burrow is a sort of elongated hole in the ground and those of the gopher tortoise average about 7 feet deep, going into the ground like a mine and are 20 to 25 feet long. I have read that the longest burrow was 35 feet long while the deepest went to 10 feet deep. All the gopher tortoise needs to be happy is an environment composed of open prairies or sand dunes. The gopher tortoise likes the open areas because they eat the grasses that grow in the open. Although the gopher tortoise primarily eats plants, they have also been known to eat parts of dead animals.
The gopher tortoise breeds during April and May. A female will emerge from her burrow and dig a hole in the sand near her burrow where she will lay 5 to 15 eggs. She will cover the eggs with the sand and go back to her burrow. In 80 to 100 days the eggs will hatch and the young gopher tortoises will dig themselves out of the "nest." While the eggs are in the ground they are very vulnerable to predators. Animals like raccoons, armadillos, and other rodents like to dig up the eggs and eat them. When the eggs start to hatch, the babies look for a place to hide under ground. If a baby gopher tortoise doesn’t find a place to hide right away, it will be eaten. A red tailed hawk may swoop down and grab a baby tortoise. Maybe a coyote will find a baby tortoise and eat it.
Because the nest is close to her burrow, at least some of her babies will find her burrow and they will be safe under ground with mom.
Because the gopher tortoise likes to live on the prairies which are also ideal for farming, they have one more thing to worry about, agriculture. To farm, you must first clear the land of everything that was there already. That is bad for the gopher tortoise because the plows and heavy machinery not only remove the grasses and plants that the gopher tortoise naturally eats, but also collapses their burrows and nests. Pesticides and herbicides are used on the fields and the gopher tortoise may inadvertently consume these poisons.
The gopher tortoise will often make more than one burrow. A male will make many more than a female. The digging of many burrows by both male and female gopher tortoises could be for several reasons, first, the sand or dirt that they dig their burrows in could be too wet or too dry so it might not be useable all year. Second, the tortoise might move from one burrow to another because of the tempeture on the outside of burrow. Just like people who live in the snowy north who come here to Florida in the winter, when temperatures drop into the 20"s and 30’s, the tortoise will want a deeper burrow to escape the cold. In the summer time the heat can climb as high as 110 in the sun and the tortoise will want to escape the direct sun light in the summer by sliding into the closest burrow. So, a tortoise needs to have several burrows scattered around its territory.
The burrow is a haven for hundreds of invertebrates (bugs). The vertebrates (snakes and lizards, toads, birds and mice, etc.) also may share the Gopher Tortoise’s burrows. I look at the other animals that move in to the gopher tortoise’s burrow as squatters, they don’t help build the house, but they use it. My favorite snake of all time, the Eastern Diamond-back rattlesnake loves to share the burrow with the gopher tortoise. The eastern diamondback just sits in the living room with the gopher tortoise and they get along great. The diamondback rattlesnake just waits in the tortoise’s living room and eats the rabbits, rats or squirrels that come into the burrow. It’s just like at Gatorman’s house when my friends come over and I order a pizza.
So many insects and animals rely on gopher tortoise burrows for safety, food and a place to live, if the gopher tortoise became extinct, their loss would disrupt the whole ecosystem. Every time a developer moves further west into the everglades they are destroying Gopher tortoise habitat and that means, whether they want to admit it or not, they are destroying gopher tortoises. I was glad to see in the news a few weeks ago that Metro-Dade County and Broward County at least are taking the gopher tortoise into consideration when issuing land clearing permits to developers. It used to be a developer would come in with bulldozers and clear everything, but new developments must now set aside a certain amount of area to be preserved in a natural state. This is called "Green Space" and is now a selling point for many developments. Sometimes plans call for a certain section of a property to be cleared and that just can’t be changed. At least, many developers are now having naturalists check their land before they clear it and if they find tortoise burrows they can sometimes relocate the animals in them. It’s not the best we can do for the gopher tortoise but it is better than the alternative.
My stories may not be reused in any way without my permission. If you are a teacher or a student and you need my story or any part of it to help you with a class or a better grade, just e-mail me (gatorman1@aaof.us) and I will gladly give you permission to use the story. Other requests will be considered on a case by case basis.
Come Tour the Everglades with Gatorman & Friends DVD Email me for price & shiping info
*This story
or any part of it can not be used or reproduced with out written
permission of the author!
