I would leave it alone, it's illegal to disturb them.

I know that it's illegal to disturb them but this one is right up against the house digging under large limestone rocks and going straight towards the houses foundation with the burrow. There has to be a way to leagally relocate them when they are burrowing in a place that could either cause property damage or could end up hurting the tortoise. If it keeps enlarging it's burrow where it is now the rocks that are right above the entrance will collapse into the burrow. Eventually I plan on adding a concrete strip in front of the rocks right were the burrow is. If I can't get it to relocate itself then I will have to call someone, maybe fish and game, to see if they can relocate the gopher tortoise for me.

I'm jealous, wish the one near us was a bit closer. We have one that lives on the vacant lot across the street, he comes over to eat the weeds in our lawn.. lol

Was about ready to drop the neighbors dog off at the animal shelter as it's allowed to roam free and was over there attacking it. Brought it home in a less than friendly fashion and informed the neighbor that their dog was not allowed to mess with the endangered tortoise across the street and next time they'd be paying an impound fee to reclaim it.

It's so strange that it would dig so close to your house, they are usually pretty shy.

It's also illegal to disturb their burrows. Call Fish and Wildlife to ask about a relocation permit. It's the only legal thing you can do.

I just looked up the Florida fish and wildlife website to to find a number that I can call.

From what I have read in the past, if a tortoise is digging under the foundation of a house or a road, they will usually come out and relocate it for you. In all other locations, all bets are off. I hope they come out and find a good solution for your problem. Blocking the entrance likely won't work. Tortoises are insanely stubborn and he will continue to dig until he gets past your roadblock.

We have a few in our area and, like Jennifer, I kind of wish they were a bit closer. There's one who has a burrow in an empty lot between my house and the house to the north of me. And while that is close, it is only one of her burrows. She has at least one other burrow that is in a field behind us and she seems to prefer that one over the one closer to us.

Karalynn,
Sorry to hear that the tortoise is burrowing too close to your foundation. I hope they can relocate him on your property.
We have seen 2 large ones, Tommy and Tilly, and a couple smaller ones on our property. There are burrows all over this area (sandhills SW of Williston). So far we have been lucky that they have stayed away from the house. I kept the back half of the property natural with gopher apple, tall grasses and saw palmetto. I can always tell when one is out when I see the grass waving ;)
Because we have the burrows, we see an indigo racer and burrowing owls occassionally.
Good luck!

I'd love to have one over here, but afraid my property won't hold one unless I hold it captive. hehe. Hope FF&W are able to help you out.

I haven't had the time to call them yet but I did find the contact information. After work yesterday I removed the rocks blocking the burrow entrance to make sure I wouldn't get in trouble. I'm hoping that when I tell them where the burrow is they will either give me a permit to move it or come move the tortoise themselves.

Part of me would really love to get a breeder's permit and set up pens. There was a time when that would have been the first thing I did once I moved into a place. I even had a 4'x6' Box Turtle pen in an apartment that had patches of grass, sand, water and such in sunken litter boxes. It made for a very cool indoor turtle/tortoise enclosure and I even got a viable clutch of eggs as a reward, but it was fairly expensive to keep it up. The logistics required to set up a pen to provide a Gopher Tortoise enough room to roam as well as a 30ft tunnel... it's just not going to happen.

Over the years, I have owned so many different kinds of turtles I can't remember them all. When we first moved here three years ago and I saw a little baby gopher tortoise (barely 3 inches from front to back of the carapace) cruising my yard, I got elated and frustrated at the same time. I finally lived in an area where tortoises roamed free, but I already knew that gopher tortoises were endangered and so I watched this little guy (too young to get a positive gender ID) munch on my grass knowing there was nothing I could do to ensure it got to a mature size. I haven't seen that one since. The others I have seen (two females and one male) have been just too big to have been that same one with three years of growth added on, though none have been full-grown adults. From what I have been reading, their populations in Florida are getting stronger, which is great, but I don't think they will become non-protected anytime soon... and I'm not sure I would want them to be.

It's been a very hectic week at work for me so I wasn't able to call the person that handles species conservation for my area until today at noon. I left a message for him and hopefully he will call back soon. I'll keep you updated to future developements.

Kara

wish we had them down here. Do they damage foundations?
They're amazingly well-adapted critters. I covered the wildfires in Central Florida in 1998 (some will remember, this was the year the governor cancelled July 4th - no fireworks - because the state was so dry and much of it was on fire.)
Walking through a neighborhood that had been leveled in Brevard County, the photographer I was with pointed out gopher holes. They had survived the fire by burrowing underground and were already digging new holes in the ash. I talked to a gopher expert who said that most of them would probably survive, even though so much vegetation had been wiped out, because they're just adapted to a slash and burn state.

I rather doubt they would damage a concrete slab foundation but some of the older cracker houses are raised up on posts/pilars and a large enough burrow might be able to destabilize one of those, I think. In my situation I'm more worried about the flowerbed's rock edging collapsing down into the burrow and trapping the tortoise. I wish the tortoise had dug the burrow away from the house and flowerbeds. I would have then been happy to leave it alone, even if it was in the middle of the lawn!

I got a call back from the species conservation man and he e-mailed me the 3 page permit application for relocating the gopher tortoise along with the 8 page permit infomation packet and the 3 page quiz that I have to fill out along with the application. I then have to mail the application and quiz back to him along with the $25 fee and a copy of my driver's license. Then I have to wait to see whether or not the permit will be approved. Looking over the form I'm not even sure that they will think I have enough property to relocate the tortoise within my own yard or if they will want it moved somewhere else. This is turning into a lot more fuss then I thought it would!

Kara

Hi Kara,
I was wondering what happened with the gopher tortoise?
Did you leave it to it's own doings or move it?

For now I'm leaving it alone. I keep hoping that it will decide to move somewhere else on it's own. I had no idea it took so much paperwork just to see if you can get permission to relocate one tortoise. And the guy I talked to didn't seem to think it was all that big a problem that the burrow was right under the edge of the flowerbed. My hope was that someone would come relocate it for me but no such luck. It's just not just the gopher tortoise that I'm worried about either. Lots of other critters like to set up house in turtle burrows, including rattle snakes!

Can these sweet creatures cause problems if they dig near a swimming pool? We have one (*gopher I believe) that is actively digging RIGHT past our swimming pool. Anyone with experience?

What kind of pool is it? Does it have a concrete form or just a butyl liner? I honestly don't have much experience with pools, so my understanding of building options is very general. If the pool has a concrete form, I wouldn't imagine you have much to worry about. The gopher tortoise will not try to burrow through the concrete and their tunnels are generally just long, not expansive, so even if it ends up under the pool, it isn't like the tortoise will excavate a huge void under the pool. But again, that goes to my lack of understanding of pool design. If even concrete formed pools have a thin layer of concrete, that's a lot of weight (water) to put on a weak point. If you had the pool put in, you might want to contact the company and ask them if the construction method they used will hold up to a tortoise creating a narrow tunnel under it.

I appreciate the information... will look for more information on how/who installed the pool. It is an in ground concrete pool, just wasn't sure how extensive the tunnels are.

Angela,

I can't tell from the pic, but if you can see the tunnel on the surface its probably not a gopher tortoise. From my experience having numerous ones on my property, all you see is the entrance and the exit, both of which are gentle slopes leading to a half circle entrance the exact size of the tortoises shell. I could be wrong.

Rhonda

To who ever is jelious come and take some of mine they keep breeding and i have holes all over my lawn right now i have like six of the dam things there has to be away of removing them