Gopher Tortoise Facts and Conservation - The Nature Conservancy

The main threat to gopher tortoises is the same one faced by hundreds of other species around the world: habitat loss. One of their favorite habitats, longleaf pine forest, once covered 90 million acres unbroken from Virginia to Florida to Texas. Less than 5% of original longleaf pine forest remains today.

The longleaf pine ecosystem includes old-growth forest, open pine stands, well-drained sandy soils, plenty of low grasses and vegetation to eat and room to move around. Unfortunately for the gopher tortoise, this habitat is also very desirable for people, especially in Florida. Development, urban sprawl, agricultural conversion and fire suppression drastically reduced and fragmented gopher tortoise habitat and made intact forests overgrown and unsuitable for tortoises.