Tucked away in the back of the Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo lies a shaded grassy area where 10 rescued gopher tortoises spend their days grazing and burrowing — unable to return to the wild but safe in a haven built just for them.
Some are missing limbs, and others have damaged shells. But what they all have in common is that they survived life-threatening injuries. Scoots, Izzy and Gia were attacked by dogs, while Master Shredder, Diglett, Ziggy and Cramer were hit by cars and Seal was hit by a tractor.
Unlike some animals at SFC Teaching Zoo, gopher tortoises aren’t just an attraction — they’re a keystone species crucial to Florida’s ecosystem. The tortoises are ecosystem engineers, with burrows that provide shelter for hundreds of species like indigo snakes and rattlesnakes, according to Steven Johnson, a UF professor specializing in natural history and amphibian and reptile conservation.
Despite their roughly 60-million-year history, gopher tortoises are facing extinction, suffering from Florida’s development and industrialization, Johnson said. According to the Florida Wildlife Federation, their population count currently hovers between 700,000 and 800,000. In the past century, the tortoise’s population has declined by 80%, per the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife.
“Humans are having profound and wide-reaching impacts on all kinds of organisms,” he said. “Turtles are among some of the most imperiled animals on the planet.”
A Florida law prohibits the killing, harassing or destroying of gopher tortoises, their eggs or their burrows because of their threatened status, designated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. But Johnson, a Florida native who has seen the state’s quick development and population growth, said he wasn't optimistic about what the future holds for Florida’s gopher tortoises.
A proposal leaked to the public in August outlined the construction of a golf course in Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County — a vital gopher tortoise habitat. The plan has since been withdrawn.
“They’re no threat whatsoever to people, just an inconvenience for development,” Johnson said. “If you'd see a tortoise up close and personal, you can't help but smile.”
Another threat is the tortoise's slow nature, which can make them susceptible to oncoming traffic and attacks from predators.
As the tortoise population has encountered more obstacles over the years, the zoo has accumulated six male tortoises and four females.
Master Shredder, a 25-year-old zoo resident, was found with multiple fractures in his shell. Screws were inserted into the protective layer of his shell, allowing the bone to heal over time. Jade Woodling, a conservation education curator at the zoo, compared the process to when humans get a metal plate or screw after breaking a bone.
Woodling added gopher tortoises generally have many fun behaviors — particularly when they’re seeking a mate.
“They do a lot of head bobbing at each other,” she said. “It literally looks like a bobblehead in your car.”
Things can get heated during the mating process. Sometimes they bite at each other's front limbs, Woodling said. If two males are fighting over a female, they will try and flip each other over so they can't stand back up.
“It’s very silly to watch,” she said.
The SFC Teaching Zoo partners with UF Zoo Medicine to care for the animals, and Woodling said the two organizations have a positive relationship. The department comes every two weeks with its residents to perform checkups, which sometimes involve caring for the tortoises.
Regardless of what happens to the gopher tortoise population statewide, Santa Fe’s tortoises will remain safe from the dangers of the outside world. These tortoises have the majority of their lives left, living an average of 40 to 60 years in the wild and up to decades more in captivity, according to Woodling.
“They’re all going to live their best life here,” she said.
Contact Shaine Davison at sdavison@alligator.org. Follow her on X @shainedavison.
Shaine Davison is a second-year journalism major and the university graduate school and Santa Fe reporter. Outside of classes, she enjoys spending time with friends and studying at coffee shops.
