The best way to celebrate Gopher Tortoise Day is to ensure there are more gopher tortoises across their natural range in the southeast United States. Founded in 2013, the Forestland Stewards ...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has published a new assessment that revises the gopher tortoise’s status from “vulnerable” to “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List of ...

Florida is home to plenty of species that need no introduction: alligators, crocodiles, panthers, or manatees. However, a silent sentinel lies within burrows of Florida’s grounds. The gopher tortoise ...

The fate of the gopher tortoise, Georgia’s state reptile and the only land tortoise in the eastern U.S., has worried conservationists for decades. Habitat loss and other factors have pushed ...

GAINSVILLE, FLA – To improve my chances, and because wandering around sandy scrub at dawn yelling ‘tortoise, please’ isn’t a real strategy, I arranged to meet Katherine Saylor, the Southeastern ...

A rescued gopher tortoise arrived at the Nokuse Nature Preserve in Florida’s Panhandle while my sister Erica and I were there. It didn’t know how lucky it was. Across Florida, builders are required to ...

“It was just peaceful and quiet. We loved the area. My aunt actually lives right next door,” she says. “And it would be within the same school district that our kids are in now.” The plan was simple: ...

Not so long ago, one Georgia species was in critical danger of extinction, but in 2022 for the ecosystem, The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)to be no ...

Tucked away in the back of the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo lies a shaded grassy area where 10 rescued gopher tortoises spend their days grazing and burrowing — unable to return to the wild but safe ...