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- The gopher tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, is a large land turtle that lives in underground tunnels, called burrows, it digs in sandy soils. These burrows provide a home and refuge for the tortoise and more than 350 species of wild animals and insects that share the same habitat.
- Wildlife experts call the gopher tortoise a "keystone species," because it is the backbone of the plant and wildlife community in which it lives. Without the tortoise, the populations of more than 350 wildlife species who seek refuge or live in the burrows would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. These species that depend upon tortoise burrows are called commensals and include the indigo snake, pine snake, gopher frog, opossum, burrowing owl, Florida mouse, gopher cricket and scarab beetle.
- Gopher tortoises occur in all 67 counties in Florida, but they prefer high, dry, sandy places such as longleaf pine and xeric oak sandhills. They also live in scrub, xeric hammock, pine flatwoods, dry prairie, coastal grasslands and dunes, mixed hardwood-pine communities, and a variety of disturbed habitats, such as pasture lands.
- Gopher tortoises graze naturally on a wide variety of plant types including broadleaf grasses, wiregrass, prickly pear cactus, wild grape, blackberry, blueberry, beautyberry and many more. They generally feed within about 165 feet of their burrows, but they have been known to range more than twice that distance to meet their foraging and nutritional needs.
- They typically feed year round, during the coolest part of the day in summer and warmest part of the day in winter. During the coldest winter days, they may not emerge from their burrows at all.
- Gopher tortoises have lived for millions of years, but biologists who study these ancient reptiles are concerned we may lose them entirely unless we do more to protect and conserve them and their rapidly disappearing habitat.
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