The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has denied Endangered Species Act protections to the eastern population of the gopher tortoise, including those found in Florida.
The service has determined that gopher tortoise populations in Florida, as well as Georgia, South Carolina and most of Alabama, are “robust.”
“Efforts to improve conditions for the gopher tortoise have been effective, and it is important that scientists, experts and wildlife professionals continue to strategically use our best resources to help recover the gopher tortoise where it’s most vulnerable,” said Leopoldo Miranda-Castro, the Service’s Southeastern Regional Director. “The Service will continue to work with our partners to support head-start programs, resource management plans and other conservation coalitions to help conserve this keystone species.”
The Center for Biological Diversity had petitioned for the Endangered Species Act protection for the gopher tortoise.
“Denying gopher tortoises the protection they need to survive is indefensible,” said Elise Bennett, Florida director and an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It ignores devastating urban sprawl that’s decimated the tortoise’s habitat and will continue to drive the species ever closer to extinction.”
Primary threats to the gopher tortoise are fragmentation, destruction and modification of its habitat, including urbanization. Other threats include mortality due to vehicle strikes; effects of climate change including increased drought and extreme high temperatures, sea level rise and migration of human populations from inundated coastal areas; and nonnative invasive species, disease and predation, mainly on nests and hatchlings. Increased drought and high temperatures also reduce the number of days that prescribed fire can be used for habitat management, which leads to further degradation and loss of habitat.
In Florida, gopher tortoises must be relocated before any land clearing or development takes place, and property owners must obtain permits from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission before capturing and relocating tortoises.
Gopher tortoises dig deep burrows for shelter and forage on low-growing plants. Gopher tortoises share their burrows with more than 350 other species, and are therefore referred to as a keystone species.
