Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. ALBANY — Love is in the air for Georgia’s official state reptile, and female gopher tortoises are busy laying clutches of eggs ...

The fate of the gopher tortoise, Georgia’s state reptile and the only land tortoise in the eastern U.S., has worried conservationists for decades. Habitat loss and other factors have pushed ...

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 ...

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida animal sanctuary is reminding residents and tourists to stop painting the shells of turtles and gopher tortoises. The reminder comes after a female gopher tortoise was ...

Federal wildlife officials say the threatened gopher tortoise does not need protections under the Endangered Species Act in most parts of Alabama, but wildlife advocates say the decision is ...

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 ...

She’s spent 20 days at Honeymoon Island State Park urging drivers to slow down. It’s working. Maggie Serus, 71, of Dunedin, uses a sign to warn drivers of the presence of gopher tortoises on the ...

LABELLE, Fla. (WINK) — Two LaBelle residents are raising concerns about the threat to a protected species due to rapid community growth. The gopher tortoise, Florida's only native tortoise species, is ...

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 ...

Listen to a Narrated Version of This Story in the ICYMI Series for the Line Life Podcast Wes Graham holds up his hand like a sergeant halting his squad. “See him? There he is,” he said. The ...