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For the Love Of Nature, Art and Bad Humor
A Comic Gallery of Creative Expression in the Pursuit of Knowledge
Gopher Tortoise
Gopherus polyphemus
Part elephant. Part shovel.
An animal we can all dig.
This is the Gopher Tortoise. Not a gopher turtle.
They can't swim and don't love water - they get plenty of
hydration from the plants they eat.
They're peaceful, land-dwelling vegetarians that hatch
from ping-pong-ball-sized eggs and grow into
40 pounds of hole-digging awesome.
Gopher Tortoises are a keystone species.
Ecosystems that support Gopher Tortoises would fall
apart without Gopher Tortoises.
With their elephant-like, shovel feet they dig big
underground burrows that maintain stable temperatures year-round. The burrows are, literally, pretty cool.
These burrows shelter the tortoises and roughly 350 other species from drought, fire, and other environmental hazards. Gopher tortoises dig a lot of burrows and don’t mind sharing with all those squatter species - whether
they still live there or not.
They also help their habitats by eating plants and
pooping out the seeds. Over their roughly human-length lifespan, they help spread plant diversity and maintain healthy growth, one poo at a time.
Gopher tortoises have been pooping on
this planet for about 60 million years.
May they keep at it for another 60 million years and beyond.
References:
https://www.fws.gov/project/gopher-tortoise
https://floridawildlifefederation.org/gopher-tortoise/
https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/reptiles/gopher-tortoise/
https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/animals-we-protect/gopher-tortoise/
https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/gopher-tortoise
Special thanks to Jay Exum, Ph.D. Wildlife Ecology for his expert fact checking!
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