Gopher tortoises are known for their love of burrowing. But removing the protected creatures from their lengthy tunnels is costly as county officials recently learned. The removal was necessary to ...

Manatee County is doing its part to save the gopher tortoise with a new relocation program aimed at protection and in hopes of increasing their population. The gopher tortoise is federally listed as ...

TALLAHASSEE --- State wildlife officials defended an emergency order that expands how far threatened gopher tortoises can be relocated as booming development continues in Florida. But members of the ...

A rescued gopher tortoise arrived at the Nokuse Nature Preserve in Florida’s Panhandle while my sister Erica and I were there. It didn’t know how lucky it was. Across Florida, builders are required to ...

“It was just peaceful and quiet. We loved the area. My aunt actually lives right next door,” she says. “And it would be within the same school district that our kids are in now.” The plan was simple: ...

Developers were quietly given another 60 days to skirt gopher tortoise protection rules as the state struggles to find viable land to relocate the beleaguered reptile amid a building boom.

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- Land management agencies would have to consider finding areas suitable for gopher tortoises that get pushed from their homes by development, under a measure sent to the ...

Last week, the federal government denied protections to the gopher tortoise—a keystone species—east of the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers. Though this doesn’t change much for the gopher tortoise in ...

When Samantha S. and her family bought just over 2 acres in Middleburg, FL, in September 2021, they thought they’d found the perfect place to put down roots. The wooded lot, just minutes from Jennings ...