Reptiles
Gopher Tortoise
Gopherus polyphemus · also called gopher turtle, Hoover chicken
The gopher tortoise is not much to look at — a plain brown, dome-shelled tortoise plodding across a sandy clearing — but it is one of the most important animals in the southeastern United States. Almost everything else in the pinelands depends on the holes it digs.
Overview
Gopherus polyphemus lives in the well-drained sandy soils of the southeastern coastal plain, under longleaf pine and oak scrub. It eats low-growing plants and gets its water from them. It is the only tortoise native to North America east of the Mississippi, from an ancient lineage.
The burrow
Using flattened, spade-like front legs, it digs tunnels averaging 5 m long — sometimes 12 m and 3 m deep — that stay at a near-constant temperature and humidity.
A landlord for hundreds
Those burrows shelter more than 350 other species — gopher frogs, indigo snakes, Florida mice, burrowing owls, rabbits, invertebrates — including as a refuge from fire. This is why the gopher tortoise is called a keystone species: lose it, and much of the community goes too.
Slow to recover
It matures at 10–15 years, lays about 6 eggs, and loses most nests to predators. Threats include habitat loss, fire suppression, roads, historic harvest (“Hoover chicken”), and a respiratory disease.
Status
Vulnerable and declining, federally Threatened in the western part of its range, with strongholds on protected pine lands in Florida and Georgia.
Gopher Tortoise: common questions
Why is the gopher tortoise called a keystone species?
Because so much of the ecosystem depends on its digging. In the hot, dry, fire-swept pinelands of the Southeast there are few natural shelters, and the gopher tortoise builds the main one. Its burrows stay cool in summer, warm in winter, humid, and safe from fire and most predators, and more than 350 other animal species have been recorded using them, some of them almost entirely reliant on tortoise burrows, such as the gopher frog and the Florida mouse. When gopher tortoises are removed from an area, the burrows collapse over time and the animals that needed them decline or vanish, so protecting the tortoise protects a whole community.
What should you do if you find a gopher tortoise crossing a road?
If it is safe to do so, move it across in the direction it was already heading and place it just off the road on that side; do not turn it around and do not take it away. Gopher tortoises have a home range centred on their own burrow and will keep trying to get back to it, so a relocated tortoise wanders and often dies. It is also illegal in every state where they occur to collect, keep, harm, or move a gopher tortoise except under a permit, largely because moving tortoises has spread the respiratory disease and because they are protected. If a tortoise is injured, contact a state wildlife agency or a licensed rehabilitator.
Is a gopher tortoise the same as a desert tortoise?
They are close relatives in the same genus, Gopherus, and both dig burrows and live in dry country, but they are different species on opposite sides of the continent. The gopher tortoise lives in the sandy pinelands of the humid Southeast. The desert tortoises, of which there are two species, live in the arid Southwest and northern Mexico. The gopher tortoise generally digs deeper, more permanent burrows and lives at higher densities, and it is the only Gopherus found east of the Mississippi. All of them are of conservation concern.
How long do gopher tortoises live?
A long time. In the wild they commonly reach 40 to 60 years, and individuals in captivity have lived past 80. Combined with their late maturity and low reproductive output, this makes them a classic slow-life-history animal; a population can look stable for years because the adults are long-lived, while quietly failing to produce enough young to replace them. This is why threats that kill adults, especially road traffic and habitat destruction, are so damaging, and why conservation focuses on protecting large tracts of the right habitat rather than just on breeding.