This gopher tortoise ran out of the back driveway into this thicket.
Gopher tortoise in the briar patch
This Gopherus polyphemus is hard to see in there. Continue reading
This gopher tortoise ran out of the back driveway into this thicket.
Gopher tortoise in the briar patch
This Gopherus polyphemus is hard to see in there. Continue reading
After the prescribed burn, it’s a lot easier to see, and there are more gopher tortoise burrows than we thought.
Here’s another Gopherus polyphemus near the road. It’s good there are so many. Gophers are a keystone species, hosting Continue reading
Video by John S. Quarterman, Coppage Road, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 August 2011.
To find a way through the fence.
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About Longleaf (Pinus palustris), wiregrass (Aristida stricta), and gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) by the Longleaf Alliance:
We believe that longleaf in any form is better than a cotton field; that longleaf and native ground cover (like wiregrass) is better than longleaf alone; that longleaf, wiregrass, and gopher tortoises are better than longleaf and wiregrass alone.
Picture of Pinus palustris and Aristida stricta by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 February 2011.
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It’s probably this gopher.
The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is named for its burrowing skills. Its shovel-shaped forefeet dig burrows up to 40 feet long that shelter and house not only tortoises, but a virtual zoo. By one count, an astonishing 362 animals take refuge in these burrows, from gopher frogs and burrowing owls to an array of snakes and invertebrates, some species depend entirely on them. If we lacked the scientific concept of a keystone species–one with an impact far beyond that expected from its numbers–we’d need to create it for the gopher tortoise, given its importance in the longleaf forest ecosystem.
Picture of Gopherus polyphemus front porch by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 February 2011.
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So it could get back to digging.
More pictures in the flickr set.
I noticed this gopher because the dogs kept yipping and running over to where she was. She eventually crawled off into the underbrush and went under, as you can see.
The pictures were taken with a wireless Ethernet camera, recorded by software run out of crontab every minute. The recording ends when it started to rain and I took the camera in.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 16 September 2009.