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Gopher Tortoise
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Description: A dry land turtle,the gopher tortoise has a high,
domed shell with shell lengths of up to 15 inches. They have stubby,
elephant-like hind feet and flattened front feet with large toe nails for
digging. Gopher tortoises favor dry, sandy ridges with open stands of longleaf
pine, turkey oak and other scrub oaks. They also frequent open areas around road
shoulders, food plots, and rights-of-way which have well drained sandy soil.
Gophers dig long sloping burrows up to 30 feet long and extending up to 9 feet
below the surface. The burrows almost always have a characteristic mousehole
shape, with a flat bottom and a rounded arched top and sides, much like the
gopher itself. These dens are used as shelter by gophers as well as by a variety
of other sandhill residents, including the indigo snake and the diamondback
rattlesnake. Gophers feed on grasses and other plant material near the ground.
Feeding trails are often visible leading from the den’s sandy apron to foraging
areas. Eggs are laid in or near the den apron in May, June, and July and hatch
in about 80-100 days. Young tortoises are about the size of silver dollars and
they and nest are very vulnerable to predation by crows, raccoons, opossums,
foxes, skunks, and other animals.
Distribution by County: Gopher tortoises are protected by federal law in the Alabama counties west of the Mobile and Tombigbee Rivers and in Mississippi and Louisiana. They are also protected by state law in the rest of the state as a game animal with no open season. Counties in which they are federally protected include Choctaw, Washington, and Mobile. Other counties in which they occur are Baldwin, Barbour, Bullock. Butler, Clarke, Crenshaw, Coffee, Conecuh, Covington, Dale, Escambia, Geneva, , Henry, Houston, Monroe, Montgomery, Pike, Sumter, and Wilcox. |
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Forestry
Considerations: Care should be taken with heavy equipment around gopher
dens to avoid collapsing the den and particularly to avoid crushing eggs and
young gophers, which dig very shallow dens. Fire and/or herbicides may be
necessary to maintain gopher tortoise habitat quality when scrub oaks shade out
ground cover the gopher tortoise feeds on. Gophers forced to move to road
shoulders and opening edges are vulnerable to predation by animals and humans.
Frequent fires and thinnings allow sunlight to reach the forest floor and create
good habitat for nesting and feeding.