#gopher tortoise burrows

[great-and-small]

Well this is awkward

[soupcrouton]

YOOO fellow field worker what type of field stuff do u do

It was a lab! Im in a natural resource sampling class

[wachinyeya]

04.16.2025 -- Story by Richard Luscombe

Dozens of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer and are enjoying a new lease on life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.

Rangers at Fort De Soto county park near St. Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight members of the vulnerable species were known to be living there.

Now, after the astonishing journey, a count last month confirmed 84 active burrows, suggesting the tortoises quickly adapted to their new habitat after their forced eviction from Florida’s Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge, a tiny island more than three kilometers (two miles) southwest that was pummeled by the Category 4 hurricane.

As well as sparking a surge of interest in the park in the form of visitors keen to catch a glimpse of the unexpected new arrivals, the tortoises are providing benefits for some of the animals that already lived in the 445-hectare (1,100-acre) environment.

“They’re a keystone species, which means they share their burrows with other species, and there’s been something like 250 different species recorded as living in gopher tortoise burrows,” says Anna Yu, a Fort De Soto ranger who has assumed responsibility for the roving reptiles’ well-being.

“Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there, and we’ll hopefully see an increase in biodiversity in the park. Because we have all these new burrows, other animals are able to use them, like eastern diamondback snakes, black racers, all kinds of different reptiles,” she says.

“The last time a gopher frog was listed as being one of the species in the park was in 2016, so it’s really cool to think that maybe some of these really imperiled species that rely on gopher tortoise burrows to survive might make their way back.

“I don’t expect to see frogs popping up everywhere, but there’s certainly more of a chance than before this happened.”

Yu and her colleagues knew the tortoises had come across the water from Egmont Key because biologists from St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College, who were studying them, had drilled small holes in their shells as identification markings.

Tortoises are poor swimmers, and many likely drowned during the hurricane. At least 40 were discovered washed up dead. But the survivors, Yu says, would have floated and been carried on the surface as Helene’s winds whipped the water surging toward the beaches of the mainland. “It’s like they knew exactly where to go; they went a little bit higher in hopes of not being drowned out by another storm. There’s a little bit of intelligence there,” she says.

Even more exciting are the mating behaviors some of the tortoises have exhibited, suggesting a new generation of gopher tortoises will soon be plodding around.

“It’s a sign they’re thriving. Being able to mate is a sign of success,” Yu says.

“The main point in all this is that we want to make sure Fort De Soto is, above all, a wild place and home to an abundance of wildlife that depends on the people that come through, depends on their respect and all of our collective stewardship of their habitat to survive.

“I think this is a really ecologically important event. It’s a feel good story too, of course, but it’s also very critically important environmentally.”

“The whole event was just sheer luck that they ended up at Fort De Soto and not out at sea, or at some of the other beaches north of St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, really popular beaches that don’t have the habitat to support these creatures,” she says. “It could have turned out a lot differently for them.”

Their behaviors since washing ashore have also fascinated observers. Some of the tortoises, presumably traumatized by their hazardous odyssey, burrowed deep into higher elevations. The majority of the burrows, Yu says, were dug beyond Helene’s storm surge line.

[herpsandbirds]

The Gopher Tortoise:

A Valuable Keystone Species

A keystone species is a critical organism that has a disproportionately large impact on its environment relative to its abundance. The gopher tortoise exemplifies this by creating burrows that provide shelter for over 350 species, thus maintaining the biodiversity and ecological health of its habitat. Here is list of just some of the species effected in a positive way by the presence of gopher tortoises.

Go here to see a list of the animals that benefit from Gopher Tortoise burrows:

Our Keystone Species – The Tortoise Conservancy | Save The Gopher Tortoises

[asterwild]

i saw @/9bandedcreative's prompt list, #sketchyhabitats, and had to join in with some sketches of habitats here in the southeastern usa!

high tide (+ low tide, gulf coast salt marsh)

cozy burrow (gopher tortoise burrow)

crisp rain (vernal/ephemeral pool w/ amphibians)

sunny spot (a sandstone glade)

[the-starry-seas]

It's Gopher Tortoise Day!

April 10th was officially adopted by the Gopher Tortoise Council as Gopher Tortoise Day! In Florida, gopher tortoises are found in parts of all 67 counties and are frequently encountered in neighborhoods, along roadways, and in many of Florida’s public parks and forests. The goal of Gopher Tortoise Day is to increase awareness and appreciation for these long lived, gentle reptiles. Gopher tortoises are considered a keystone species because they dig burrows that provide shelter for 360 other species of wildlife, called "commensals." These commensal species include the gopher frog, Florida mouse, eastern indigo snake, and hundreds of invertebrates like beetles and crickets. Without the gopher tortoise, many of these species would not exist.

- gophertortoisedayfl.com

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Going to Ground with the Gopher Tortoise

The gopher tortoise, sometimes specified as the Florida gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), is a species of tortoise found only in the southeastern United States. They require highly specialized habitats of dry, sandy soils, few trees, and a variety of low-growing vegetation. These habitats include coastal scrub, pine flat-woods, and sparse prairie.

As their name implies, gopher tortoises spend a large part of their time underground. They are widely known for digging large burrows, on average 4.5 m (14 ft) in length and 2 m (6.5 ft) deep. These burrows are particularly used at night and during the winter, where they can maintain a steady temperature throughout the year. Individuals maintain a relatively small home range around their burrow(s), up to 1.6 acres. Within this range, they forage on a wide variety of grasses, flowers, and shrubs. Gopher tortoises are also predated on by a variety of animals; eggs and juveniles are vulnerable to raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, skunks, birds of prey, and snakes. Adults are more shielded, but can still be coyotes, bobcats, Florida black bears, and Florida cougars.

Like other tortoises, G. polyphemus is heavily armored by a thick shell encasing the body. When threatened, individuals can pull their heads and limbs inside the shell for protection. Adults can reach a maximum length of 38.7 cm (15.24 in) and an average mass of 5.5 kg (193.83 oz), with females usually being slightly larger than males. The coloration is rather dull to blend into their surroundings, usually dark brown, tan, or grey on top and lighter tan on the bottom of the shell.

Mating for Florida gopher tortoises can occur from March through December. When they are ready to mate, males court females by bobbing their heads and walking in circles around the female. If she reciprocates, she may allow the male to mount; this process can be repeated several times over the course of several hours. Both sexes will mate with multiple partners throughout the season. After mating, the female digs a large hole and lays a clutch of 5-8 eggs. These eggs take 80 to 100 days to hatch, and young are immediately independent. Young are extremely vulnerable to predation, but those that survive reach full maturity between ages 9 to 21. Individuals can live up to 70 years in the wild.

Conservation Status: Florida gopher tortoises are considered Vulnerable by the IUCN. The species is threatened primarily by habitat destruction and fragmentation.

Photos

Florian Marchner

Amanda Hurst

Charles Warren

[katthebanana2]

Day 14: Lusus

I imagine Fozzer's lusus is a gopher tortoise, considering that he gets very defensive whenever someone else's opinions or views don't align with his own, which I connected with a tortoise's shell. Gopher tortoises are also notorious for burrowing, and--y'know--Fozzer digs.

[teratocrat]

When I first came to Ajax, when I stepped out of the red-and-yellow shuttle to plant my feet in the planet's sand, what I noticed before anything else was how pale the buildings are. On Mars, even in the warmest and most equatorial provinces, human habitation is universally black (or its best approximation), built from fulcrete and basalt and painted wood, to absorb the warmth of the sun against the bitter cold. On Ajax, far closer to its sun than Mars or even Earth, and with its 39-hour days, they must build for the opposite, towers of white or reflective silver with burrowed basements and sub-basements and sub-sub-basements underneath. The Ajactes live in cities the color of bone. The second thing I noticed, the thing that probably any other person would notice first, was the surfeit of salt in the air. I noticed this because it stung my eyes, like the threat of tears. As it happens, Ajax's oceans are significantly more saline than Earth's or Emieni's, and even its topsoil is a kind of hardpan composed of sand and dust cemented in a salt matrix. For the first several centuries of its habitiforming, it hosted an extremely carefully managed tight ecosystem of halophilic algae, bacteria and lichen painstakingly shipped from Earth and Mars, fed upon by a few species of brine shrimp. Gradually, the Hesperides introduced more species as the previous ones found their foothold: turtleweed and saltbush and cordgrasses, periwinkles and blue crabs and flamingos, suites of genetically-modified mangroves whose knees whistled in the morning and evening hours, bananas and maize and halotolerant rice. Most recently (within the last two hundred and fifty years) the Ajax Planetary Authority had grown increasingly bold and experimental: a breed of sheep brought out of cryogenic vaults on Old Earth to eat the masses of seaweed that washed ashore around the Southernmost Continent, whitetail deer both to manage the turtleweed scrubland that was covering the northern half of the Great Continent and to provide a stable meat source more robust than flamingos and periwinkles, a kind of gopher tortoise/diamondback terrapin hybrid that had proved encouragingly robust in the prairies of Mars, and even tigers to laze about in the shade of the forests that bordered saltmeadows full of bounding deer. All the Ajactes I spoke to seemed both personally invested in and extraordinarily proud of these tigers, showing me images and videos on their utility wedges, and several of the state television channels would cut away to live feeds of the animals sleeping or bathing their cubs or stalking prey.

[great-and-small]

You know what day it is! April 10th is Gopher tortoise appreciation day- everyone’s favorite holiday!

These stalwart reptiles are crucially important to their habitat in the southeastern United States, and are in fact considered a keystone species due the fact that their burrows provide homes for hundreds of other animal species.

Every year on April 10th we shine a light on these threatened turtles and celebrate their contributions to our planet. I’ll be sharing lots of gopher tortoise content today as my way of celebrating how lucky we are to have this species!

[doomspaniels]

Why are you two so interested in the fence behind this patch of marsh grass? Did you find a new hole under the fence, with lots of scent leading to it?

OH. My. You're a gargantuan gopher tortoise. I think you're in the upper end of the "up to 15 inches" size, aren't you? Aren't we all glad that you're on the far side of the fence!

Gopher tortoises (aren't you a large and lovely thing, yes you are, yes we are leaving right away) are often a source of strife for livestock facilities in Florida. They are endangered, so we are required to make sure our domesticated creatures don't pester them. This can be tough, as they dig multiple holes and move around between them--these holes are also a habitat for other ground animals, including burrowing owls and other endangered species. So we don't want our horses or cows to injure themselves stepping into a hole, we don't want our dogs or cats to follow them into the holes, but we can't fill or block off the holes from the tortoises. I don't currently have any inside my fences, so I haven't had to use any of the gopher-tortoise-safe fencing methods around a hole. But I am sure they assist in keeping the passages under the fences cleared, and enjoy my grasses when they think it's safe. We leave some of these passages available so creatures can get in and out without endangering the dogs, with fallen branches stacked over the holes to keep the Spaniels from accidentally following a scent trail right on out (and not knowing how to get back in).

We left the big ol' Morla to continue foraging in peace.

[statusquoofficial]

Book Snippet: Status Quo

Chapter 8- Expectations

“Ta-dah!”

Arms extended out in high-energy showmanship, Canopy waited eagerly for my amazement. But as I scanned around, finding no sign of a burrow, tracks or a single tortoise to speak of, we were left in awkward suspension.

“Where… Where is it?”

Canopy glanced to the side uncomfortably, struggling to keep up the smile. Finally, her arms dropped and her face shifted to befuddlement. It was like she didn’t even know how to respond to such a question. But how was it unreasonable? There was no turtle, I was promised a turtle. Maybe a six-eyed monstrosity with a shell stronger than steel. Or maybe it would be smaller than a mouse or bigger than a-

Oh.

On cue, the ground beneath us rumbled and tremored and flocks of birds burst into the sky. Behind my very smug guide, soaking up my moment of realisation and pure disbelief, the grand cave birthed a gopher tortoise that could eat gophers like breath mints. My jaw hit the ground as Canopy gleefully dragged me to the side, allowing the magnificent giant to stride by one booming step at a time.

“Ta-daaah…” She sang again as I beamed down at her like a birthday boy. “What do you think, Mr Science? Still reckon it couldn’t kill us?”

“This is the best day of my life.”

Her snorting giggle only added to the excitement as our headlining act tore lush oaks straight from the soil, chewing them mesmerisingly slow. Turning over the container in my hand, I realised that taking a sample or a specimen wouldn’t be a viable option, to say the least.

Guess we’re gonna be here a while…

Driven by over-confidence, I hiked up the side of the cliff, ignoring the continued smugness of the girl who beat me to the summit by a decade or two. Nevertheless, she gave me a hand getting onto the final ledge, struggling to hoist me up before tumbling back into the grass with dramatic exhaustion. So, more than content with lying down, she decided to kick her feet over the side and enjoy a deep, relaxing stretch in the morning sun.

Chuckling with endearment, I pulled out my journal and started sketching the ginormous creature, but the peaceful ambience only lasted until Canopy got bored. She fussed and fidgeted, huffed and puffed, plucking blades of grass from the ground next to her. And when she was met only with the back of my head, she resorted to extreme measures to get my attention.

“Ow!”

Mischievous snickering sounding behind me, another twig flicked into my neck. So in a moment of visceral retaliation and immaturity, I chucked a piece of gravel back at her, only adding to her game. We fired back and forth like medieval catapults, dodging each other's attacks with fierce determination. But the battle was lost when she grabbed a handful of soil and shoved it down my collar, a triumphant grin spread across her colourful cheeks as I wrestled her off.

“Seriously? You play dirty.” I grumbled, taking off my vest and shaking out my now-stained shirt.

“Says the one covered in dirt.”

Glaring back, I reached over her, hands planted on either side of her waist as she froze solid. Failing to notice the glow of her cheeks, I pulled her journal from her belt bag and held it up sternly between our noses.

“I have to do my job now. Why don’t you keep reading to me so you aren’t such a pain?” I suggested, expecting a light-speed leap into action. But she simply nodded quickly and accepted the book, not moving an inch until I was an appropriate distance away again. Even then, she was quiet.

“Well?”

“Uh, yeah- Um… Do you want me to read the page about the turtle?” Her voice was soft, shaken. Since when did she need prompting?

“Sure. Good idea.”

“O-okay. Well, they aren’t very common, too big I guess, but their burrows are super useful. They last forever and when the turtle leaves, heaps of other animals move in and use the cave for shelter. They also seem good at keeping the forest in check. If the trees get too tall and then fall down, it’s really bad. Even just the way the trunk blocks everyone from moving around can cause issues. One time, this massive pine tree fell, and it re-routed a river, so this lake dried out and-“

“Canopy… The turtle?” I chimed, waving the pencil down into the clearing.

“Whoops, sorry.”

“It’s ok, keep going.”

Back to her usual demeanour, she sat up, shuffling in next to me and watching the sketch take shape as she talked. Eventually, she moved on from the turtle, getting distracted by a new train of thought that I’ll admit was much more interesting. So, she provided the entertainment while I took it all in, the view and her.

“-it doesn’t make any sense, you know?”

“Yeah, the animals can’t just get endlessly bigger. Maybe it’s the oxygen that limits them. The levels are higher now, but at a certain point, animals just can’t spread it through their bodies effectively.”

“Wow, cool… I didn’t know that. You’re so much fun to talk to.” Canopy commented sweetly, brushing up against me as I made some annotations about scale and other new-world changes to our herbivorous subject. Charmed, I returned her warmth.

“Well, you’re fun to listen to.”

Oblivious as ever, a tickle on my shin caught my attention, a soft tail swaying between us. My eyes trailed all the way up to its owner, who drew her knees up under her chin and stared at me with a shy smile. It was no surprise by this point that she looked away when our gazes met, but she didn’t go far, gazing fondly at my journal instead.

Neither of us ruined the moment, enjoying the breeze and the sunshine, and each other.

[joy-haver]

When I talk about the keystone species of my area, I describe it like this.

The Humans light the fires, that reset the world, and let everything grow new and fresh and clean. Without the fire, many of those would cease to live.

The gopher tortoises know that some small things don’t grow new after burning, however, but die instead, so they dig big burrows for everyone to hide in as the fire spreads.

The beaver also know that some big things, like dear and some trees, can’t survive the burning, so they build big dams to bring the water high, and the big things hide in the high muddy waters.

[herpsandbirds]

would it be possible to receive some good florida critters? bugs are welcome as well

Oh yes of course!

Florida Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), family Corvidae, order Passeriformes, Merritt Island, Titusville, FL, USA

This is the only bird that endemic to Florida.

Considered “vulnerable”, due to habitat degradation.

photograph by Ted Johnson

Florida Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia floridana), family Strgidae, order Strigiformes, Florida, USA

photograph by Tania Thomson

Florida Worm Lizards (Rhineura floridana), family Rhineuridae, north-central Florida, USA

Legless lizard

photographs by Dick Bartlett

One-toed Amphiuma (Amphiuma pholeter), family Amphiumidae, Florida, USA

Amphiumas are large aquatic eel-like salamanders, with 4 very small limbs.

photographs by Dick Bartlett

Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), male, family Testudinidae, found in the SE United States

Photograph by Caleb Goldsmith, Orianne Society

Atala aka Coontie Hairstreak (Eumaeus atala), family Lycaenidae, Miami, Florida, USA

This species is unique, at least amongst butterflies in the U.S., as its larvae feed on a cycad (known as a the Coontie) found in FL, GA, and parts of the West Indies.

photograph by Joaquin Garcia

[typhlonectes]

Bats as Keystone Species

Have you ever heard of the term “keystone species” before? This type of species is crucial to a healthy, stable environment. They play an integral part in one’s ecosystem. If they happen to become threatened or extinct, the loss will hurt the environment. For instance, an example of a keystone species is the gopher tortoise. Their habitat used to range as far west as Big Thicket National Preserve and would expand to the east coast. With their numbers dwindling because of the loss of the long-leaf pine tree, they are now a threatened species in most southern states. Why is this species important? They would dig these burrows underground and provide shelter for hundreds of different animals, including the gopher frog and the gopher beetle. You can only find these two animals inside a gopher tortoise burrow. So, if this tortoise becomes extinct, what will later happen to the gopher frog and the gopher beetle? Bats are also a keystone player; their numbers are over 1,400 species that can be found worldwide. What would happen if all 1,400 species of bats became extinct overnight? What are some of the first negative effects we would notice with their overnight extinction? First, there would be a huge increase in the bug population, which will later bring more diseases to humans and other life. There would also be a decrease in the number of fruits and vegetables being produced because some bats are good at dispersing seeds.

via: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

oloriel linked to a fundraiser for Sean, who is close to his $5K fundraising goal for a liver transplant; he needs a healthier environment to live in once he has the transplant and they're raising the funds for a new place and at least some partial furnishings. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

gwydion's very elderly car broke down in late October; the repair, to a cooling hose, has cheap parts but expensive labor, and ate most of zir budget for the month. Ze can't do without a car, being disabled, but can't afford to replace it either; ze's raising $280 to help cover bills and the repair. You can give via PayPal here.

nivchara-yahel and her sibling rivalconga are raising money for rent, medicine, and living expenses; they need to pay November rent by the 10th to avoid eviction. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for The Environmental Conservancy of North Port, Florida, who are trying to raise $14K to purchase a parcel of land that will protect a group of gopher tortoise burrows from being forcibly relocated, which could stress or kill the tortoises, a threatened but keystone species in Florida (their burrows are often home to numerous other species). You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Buy Stuff, Help Out:

francescaswords is dealing with some worsening health issues which are preventing her from working as she completes her degree, which has had funding cut because she's dropped to a part-time student. She's raising funds by sharing her latest novel, the YA contemporary fantasy Rotting Trees, on Patreon between now and December 2024, where patrons can read the book in installments for as low as $1.50/month. The novel follows a girl with a cursed family necklace and the antiques shop she visits to try to break the curse. You can read more and reblog here or join the Patreon here.

Recurring Needs:

rusty-chevy is very close to her fundraising goal after her work cut her hours and thus her ability to cover bills from her reduced paycheck; she's hoping for one final push to reach goal. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

gwydion linked to a fundraiser for Squirrel, a good friend who has recently lost his job and needs to raise about $800 to cover bills and food; Squirrel has had a lot of interviews and believes he will have an offer but won't start work until December. You can give via paypal here.

rilee16 is raising funds to cover November rent and possible late fees after an aggressive roommate hiked their utility bills; Rilee is now sick and also needs to be able to pay to have medication delivered. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.