KEYSTONE TORTOISES

     Gopher tortoises are called keystone wildlife because they dig several burrows in their forty acre range that other critters also use when the tortoises abandon them, and when each tortoise is in one of them.  With front claws well-adapted for digging, the tortoises dig their tunnels into sand and loose soil up to fifteen feet long and six feet deep.  These reptiles live in their underground homes to avoid extreme heat and cold, fire and predators.  State laws protect the tortoises, and their burrows.   
     Tortoise burrows shelter scores of other species of creatures small enough to squeeze into them.  Those critters include gopher frogs, indigo snakes, burrowing owls, striped skunks and many species of invertebrates, all of which live in gopher tortoises' range in much of the southeastern United States.
     Gopher tortoises are brown all over, which camouflages them.  The adults' top shells are humped-up and ten inches long.  Baby tortoises are brown, too, but each section of their top shell has a yellow spot.  But as each tortoise gets older, the yellow spots disappear.  
     Strict vegetarians, gopher tortoises mostly ingest grass, which is common and easy to obtain.  But they also consume fruits and flowers, when and where they are available.  
     Gopher tortoises mate from February to September, with a peak of mating in May and June.  They mature when ten to fifteen years old.  Males court by bobbing their heads toward a female.  And each female annually lays a clutch of three to twenty eggs in a pile of sand or soil near the entrance to her den.
     From April to November, young tortoises hatch after an incubation of seventy to one hundred days.  But nine-banded armadillos, striped skunks, raccoons, gray foxes and other critters eat many clutches of eggs.  And many small young are consumed by those same species, plus alligators and others.  But the few tortoises that grow to maturity live up to forty years.  Unfortunately, storms and development take their toll of young and adults alike.  
     Gopher tortoises are important to other wildlife in the southeastern United States.  Those reptiles not only dig homes for themselves, but many other species of critters as well.  Gopher tortoises deserve to be protected, and left alone.  They have enough troubles without people adding to their burdens.     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SPRING ON THE UPPER CHESAPEAKE

      I visited the Upper Chesapeake Bay at the Community Park of Northeast, Maryland one afternoon about the middle of March a few years ago, as I had several times in different seasons before that day.  This time, I went there to spot migrating water birds of various kinds.        Because of their high numbers, gulls and ducks were the dominant birds on the ice, and strips of open water among the slabs of ice because of the warming weather in March.  Most of the handsome ring-billed, herring and great black-backed gulls stood picturesquely on slabs of ice.        The attractive, adult ring-billed and herring gulls are mostly gray on top, white below, and look much alike, except the herrings are larger and have a red mark on their beaks, whereas each ring-bill has a black "ring" around its bill.  Largest of these gulls, the stately, mature black-backs have black backs and upper wings and are white below, making a striking, attractive plumage pattern.        All three of thos
Read more

DADDY-LONG-LEGS

     During summer, over the years in southeastern Pennsylvania, I've seen many daddy-long-legs on the bark of tree trunks on lawns, and in parks and woods.  They blend into the color of tree bark well and are difficult to see.  Many people never see them at all until those camouflaged little critters are pointed out by people in the know about them.        Daddy-long-legs have eight, really long, thin legs, but they are not spiders.  But they are arachnids, and related to spiders.  These attractive, little creatures, called daddy-long-legs because of their long legs, have quarter-inch, compact bodies raised on stilt-like legs.  They have two dark eyes and feel the vibrations of birds and other predators with their legs.  But these arachnids have no venom, or silk to make webs.        Daddy-long-legs, like all other living beings, are part of several food chains.  They consume tiny invertebrates and decaying plant and animal materials they find on tree bark.  And, in turn, many of
Read more

FATHER FINCHES FEEDING FLEDGINGS

     While sitting on our back deck to enjoy the lovely scenery and weather during the afternoon of July 21, 2023, I noticed a tiny, red speck in our tall Norway spruce tree on our suburban lawn in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Peering at that red spot with 16 power binoculars, I saw it was a beautiful male house finch feeding three fledgling house finches; his offspring.  Those gray and dark-streaked young birds fluttered their wings vigorously while being fed invertebrates and seeds.  And the wild charm of those birds was decidedly enhanced by the deep-green of the needled spruce boughs.        Those four house finches were a lovely, exciting sight to me.  I know that species of small birds raises young in our neighborhood every summer, including a pair of house finches that hatch offspring on a support under an awning over our deck.  But never before had I watched a father house finch feed his young outside their twig and grass cradle.  And when that male finch flew off the spruce lim
Read more