Animalia > Chordata > Testudines > Testudinidae > Gopherus > Gopherus polyphemus

Gopherus polyphemus ((Florida) Gopher Tortoise; Gopher tortoise)

Synonyms: Gopherus polyphemus polyphemus; Gopherus praecedens; Testudo depressa; Testudo gopher; Testudo polyphemus

Wikipedia Abstract

The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is a species of the Gopherus genus native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide shelter for at least 360 other animal species. They are threatened by predation and habitat destruction. The gopher tortoise is a representative of the genus Gopherus, which contains the only tortoises native to North America. This species of gopher tortoise is the state reptile of Georgia and the state tortoise of Florida.
View Wikipedia Record: Gopherus polyphemus

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Gopherus polyphemus

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  12.125 lbs (5.50 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  33 grams
Female Weight [2]  6.138 lbs (2.784 kg)
Egg Length [2]  1.614 inches (41 mm)
Gestation [1]  90 days
Hibernates [3]  Yes
Litter Size [1]  8
Litters / Year [4]  1
Maximum Longevity [4]  60 years
Female Maturity [1]  10 years
Male Maturity [1]  10 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Emblem of

Georgia (US)

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer)1
Sylvilagus floridanus (Eastern Cottontail)1

Predators

Alligator mississippiensis (Alligator, Gator, American alligator, Florida alligator, Mississippi alligator, Louisiana alligator.)[7]

Consumers

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 4Turtles and Tortoises Demographic Traits Database for CITES Listed Species ver. 01, Species360 (2018)
♦ 5Patterns of Folivory and Seed Ingestion by Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) in a Southeastern Pine Savanna, Roger D. Birkhead, Craig Guyer and Sharon M. Hermann, Am. Midl. Nat. 154:143-151
♦ 6Anurans as prey: an exploratory analysis and size relationships between predators and their prey, L. F. Toledo, R. S. Ribeiro & C. F. B. Haddad, Journal of Zoology 271 (2007) 170–177
♦ 7Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0