Feb. 12, 2017 - Sanibel - Gopher Tortoises
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During our visit to Sanibel Island, Florida, I had my first sighting of a Gopher Tortoise. I didn’t even have to go hunting around; they had a burrow right near the cottages where we stayed. An internet search gave me conflicting reports of whether they are listed as endangered. However, they are at least not common.
Here’s a close-up of the Tortoise. They are about 9 to 11 inches in length. Gopher Tortoises are native to the southeastern United States and some are still found in Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia. However, most of the remaining Gopher Tortoises live in Florida.
They are called Gopher Tortoises because they can dig large, deep burrows. These burrows average 15 feet long and 6.5 feet deep but the record is 47 feet long. The burrow is deep enough that it maintains a constant temperature and humidity throughout the year. It is also a refuge for the tortoise against forest fires.
This is the second Tortoise that we saw. You can tell this is a different one because it has a dark head and the other one had a light head. Gopher Tortoises can live 40 to 60 years in the wild and don’t start reproducing until they are 10 to 25 years old. They lay from 3 to 15 eggs and bury them at the entrance to their burrows. That exposes the eggs to the sun and keeps them warm but also makes the eggs vulnerable to predators. It is estimated that only 3 – 5% of the young tortoises survive.
They also eat flowers. This one was making a meal out of faded Hibiscus flowers that fell off the shrub and were on the ground. It’s interesting to note that the Gopher Tortoise is the state reptile of Georgia and the state tortoise of Florida.
TortoiseGophereatingHibiscusflowerShalimarResortSanibelIsland20170118
Ray Ruthenberg
on February 12, 2017Hi Earl,
There are tortoises at the Savanna Army Depot, (Savanna, IL) under supervision by Fish & Wildlife. As you can expect, they tend to wander off, so F&W installed a stainless steel "fence" partially buried in the sand to keep them in the "corral"
I don't know what kind of tortoise or how big an area. SAD is under a long process of cleaning up the buried ammo and chem wastes
left by the military since WW1.I was formerly on the citizen's advisory board there to advise the Army on our wishes.
Ray Ruthenberg