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|a Status of the Gopher Tortoise in Everglades National Park |h [electronic resource] |b Report T-669 |y English. |
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|a Homestead ; |a Florida : |b National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, |c 1982-06. |
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|a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights. |
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|a 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 (Ernst and Barbour 1972). Population
segments are scattered in southern Florida (Figure 1) where suitable habitat is
confined t o t h e 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
(Auffenberg 1978). 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 (Auffenberg 1978).
The southernmost population of the species occupies the beach dunes of Cape
Sable, the southwestern tip of the Florida peninsula (Figure I). Gopher tortoises on
Cape Sable are notable because they are disjunct from current and historicallyoccurring
populations further north. Despite this population being the only one
remaining in extreme southern Florida, its status and characteristics are nearly
unknown. The literature contains only a few brief comments noting its existence
(Carr and Goin 1955, Auffenberg 1978) and no account of its habitat use or
population structure. 'The purpose of the current study was to analyze the size,
structure, and distribution of this isolated island population of gopher tortoises and
to determine environmental factors affecting the characteristics of the population. |
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|a Electronic reproduction. |c Florida International University, |c South Florida Natural Resource Center, |d 2015. |f (dpSobek) |n Mode of access: World Wide Web. |n System requirements: Internet connectivity; Web browser software. |
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|a South Florida Natural Resource Center. |
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|a SuDoc number: I 29.95:T-669 |
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|a Everglades National Park (Fla.). |
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|a South Florida Natural Resources Center/South Florida Research Center, Everglades National Park. |
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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades. |
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|a South Florida Collection. |
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|a Federal Documents Collection. |
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|a dpSobek |c Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades |
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|u http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI00522669/00001 |y Click here for full text |
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|a http://dpanther.fiu.edu/sobek/content/FI/00/52/26/69/00001/FI00522669thm.jpg |
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|a Everglades Digital Library: Reclaiming the Everglades |
