Gopher Tortoise Influences

     Gopher tortoises are a type of land turtle that lives in longleaf pine woods that have sandy soil in Florida and along the Gulf Coast through Mississippi.  Their range also includes the southern halves of Georgia and Alabama.  Each tortoise lives on about four acres of the floor of longleaf pine woods. 
     Gopher tortoises are built for their life in their habitat.  They have a domed shell that is about ten inches long when they are mature.  They have round, thick back legs for walking and flattened, heavily-scaled front legs for digging protective burrows in the sandy soil.  Baby tortoises are yellow, but darken to the color of soil as they get older.  Those colors allow these animals to blend into their surroundings, which is a defense against predation. 
     Gopher tortoises are vegetarians, eating grasses, leaves, legumes, berries and other plant material they find on woodland floors.  Babies eat more legumes because they are rich in protein the young need for growth.
     Much like wood chucks, these tortoises are real home constructors, for themselves, and, inadvertently, other kinds of critters, in the sandy ground of the Deep South pine woods where they live.  Each tortoise home protects its owner and many other species of animals from overheating, weather, fire and predation.  Each tortoise digs a few burrows in its home territory, each hole about 40 feet deep on a downward slant.  Being cold-blooded as all reptiles are, gopher tortoises spend most of their time in those cool, protective tunnels, coming out of them occasionally to get food, find mates and lay two to seven eggs annually in the soil early in summer, often right outside the mouth of a burrow.  As with all reptiles, the heat of the sun incubate the eggs, encouraging the growth of the embryos to hatching by late summer.
     Gopher tortoise burrows are ecological hot spots.  Many kinds of animals find shelter in them, including indigo, eastern diamondback rattle and other kinds of snakes, lizards, burrowing owls, gopher frogs, toads, mice, including the Florida mouse, spiders and a large variety of other types of invertebrates.  Through studies, scientists claim the number of species that use tortoise burrows is close to 400.  None of those creatures were invited into the tunnels, and probably none of them do the turtles any good, but they use those tortoise homes just the same.  Many of these creatures would be at a loss for homes without gopher tortoises.  And like the tortoises, snakes and lizards spend much of their time in tortoise homes.  Obviously, this small, shelled reptile is big in the positive influence it has on its many neighbors in its habitat.                     
     There is a high mortality rate among young gopher tortoises.  Armadillos, striped skunks, raccoons, two kinds of foxes and other kinds of mammals dig up many of the eggs and eat them.  And of the young that do hatch, only a small percentage live to maturity.  It's good that adult tortoises live into their forties or longer so they have a chance at making up for losses.
     Though a small and, seemingly, an insignificant species, gopher tortoises are big in the positive influence they have on many of their neighbors.  Many creatures in the Deep South would be homeless without these little, harmless reptiles that dig long burrows in sandy soil for themselves.