SAVING THE GOPHER TORTOISE 

As this keystone species' name suggests, the gopher tortoise is an expert at living underground — like a gopher. Gopher tortoises have shovel-like front legs and strong, thick back legs to help them dig intricate burrows, which they can enter and exit easily thanks to their low-profile shells. When these tortoises aren't industriously digging burrows to hide from extreme weather and predators, or seeking out an ideal mate, they spend their days chomping on leafy greens under open canopies of pine trees. These slow-and-steady reptiles are team players, sharing their burrows with more than 360 other species of the U.S. Southeast, which take over the burrows after the tortoises move out.

BACKGROUND

Sadly gopher tortoises are struggling to survive as their habitat is destroyed for urban development. They need large, unfragmented parcels of undeveloped land, so any disruptions or barriers in their natural habitat limit their food availability and options for burrow sites — not to mention exposing them to closer contact with humans and their vehicles, with road mortality being a major cause of death for adult gopher tortoises.

Fittingly, gopher tortoises in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama (west of the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers) are protected as threatened under the Endangered Species Act — but those in eastern Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina lack federal protections.

While tortoises across their range continue to lose their homes and lives in the wake of human development, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has relegated the eastern population of gopher tortoises to its “candidate list” — a waiting list for imperiled species in need of protection but offering no real safeguards. The majority of the remaining eastern gopher tortoises live in Florida.

OUR CAMPAIGN

The Center is dedicated to winning Endangered Species Act protection for eastern gopher tortoises. In 2023 we sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for denying them Endangered Species Act protection across most of their range. Our 2013 report identifies eastern gopher tortoises aas one of the nation’s top 10 amphibians and reptiles in need of immediate federal protection to stave off extinction. 

We're also protecting these fascinating reptiles by defending their upland habitats from devastating development and fighting phosphate mining, which strips the land bare and decimates wildlife habitat.

Check out our press releases to learn more about the Center's actions for gopher tortoises.