Gopher Tortoise

 

Well, our experience observing Gopher Tortoises in Florida is rather embarrassing. We arrived at a known location in southern Florida specifically to see the tortoises and hiked along a 3km trail carefully searching every fallen log in the lake. 

After finding no tortoises we asked a trail maintenance worker about finding the tortoises. He explained that the tortoises were on the land side of the trail and that they did not venture into the pond because they could not swim well and in fact they actually have a problem with people putting them into the pond where they drown. Hmmm…needless to say we returned along the same trail finding at least a half dozen tortoises all out sunning. Lesson learned.

The gopher tortoise is one of five North American tortoise species and is the only tortoise naturally found east of the Mississippi River. Its range includes the southeastern Coastal Plain from southeastern Louisiana east to southern South Carolina, and south to Florida. Gopher tortoises occur in parts of all 67 Florida counties.

Gopher tortoises can live 40 to 60 years in the wild, though captive tortoises may live 90+ years. Males reach adulthood at approximately 9-12 years of age, whereas a female may take 10-21 years to reach maturity depending on local resource abundance and latitude.

The life of a gopher tortoise revolves around its burrow(s) where gopher tortoises spend up to 80% of their time. Burrows average 15 feet long and 6.5 feet deep, though they have been documented reaching up to 40 feet long and 10 feet deep. They often use multiple burrows throughout their lives, the number of which varies depending on the individual.