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The gopher tortoise was an important food source for the rural Southeast during the Depression. Today human predation is the least of their problems.
Gopher tortoises are vulnerable to predators like raptors and snakes during their first two years of life while their shells are still soft and flexible. If they can survive those years, then they stand a good chance of living to 40 to 50 years.
Gopher tortoises live in underground burrows in longleaf pine forests. Females spend much of their lives in the burrows. The burrows are often around 30 feet long and may descend 10 to 15 feet underground, winding around tree roots. The gopher tortoise burrow teems with other species of life, many of which depend upon the gopher tortoise for survival. Many reptiles share the burrow, including the eastern indigo snake and diamondback rattlesnake. Baby alligators have sometimes been found in the shelter of gopher tortoise burrows. Gopher frogs hang out at burrow entrances to capture insects that are attracted to the cool and damp passageways of the burrow. Temporary inhabitants can include bobcats, skunks and a variety of rodents.
During fires that sweep thorough the forest, animals have been observed fleeing towards the wall of fire, only to vanish into the safety of a gopher tortoise hole.
In order to preserve the gopher tortoise and the entire community of creatures that center on the community of the burrow, the longleaf forest habitat must be preserved.
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