Status of the Gopher Tortoise in Everglades National Park.

摘要

The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is widely distributed along the southeastern coastal plain of North America. The core of its population is in southern Alabama and Georgia and in northern and central Florida, where it inhabits sandy, xeric habitats, especially pine and beach scrub. Population segments are scattered in southern Florida (Figure 1) where suitable habitat is confined to the coasts. On the west coast, tortoises occupy high sandy islands as far south as Marco. On the east coast, they occur in sandy soil and sandy pockets in the limestone bedrock of the eastern coastal ridge as far south as Cutler. These southernmost population segments are now extinct, or nearly so, because of loss of habitat to development, and the tortoise is considered to be a threatened species in the state of Florida.