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Gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)

Wayne County, Mississippi

#photography #nature #reptilesofbluesky
March 22, 2025 at 4:57 PM
grays.art
Gopher tortoise
(Gopherus polyphemus)

Lakes Park, Ft Myers, Florida 7-18-26

#stunDay #florida #native #herps #nature #tortoises #wildlife #eck
Only a scaly, shelled critter walking toward us with a smile.
July 19, 2026 at 4:01 AM
rattlesnakes.bsky.social
Berlandier's Tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) from south Texas last year.
September 21, 2026 at 7:02 PM
lordreptar.bsky.social
A baby gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) that absolutely stole my heart. I actually almost started crying.

❗It is normally very illegal to handle them without the necessary paperwork, but our group had special clearance❗

#florida #herps #reptiles #wildlife #photography #nature
A brightly colored juvenile gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), the carapace slightly obscured by the researcher's hands. A brightly colored juvenile gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) facing the camera, the plastron slightly obscured by the researcher's fingers. A closeup of a brightly colored grumpy-looking juvenile gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) facing the camera.
February 24, 2025 at 6:52 PM
lordreptar.bsky.social
Another male gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus).

#florida #herps #reptiles #wildlife #photography #nature #turtles #tortoises

❗It is normally very illegal to handle them without the necessary paperwork, but our group had special clearance❗
A male gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) with its legs hanging down while being held by a group member.
February 24, 2025 at 7:39 PM
joelmcurzon.bsky.social
Species like this are being destroyed to enable profits for industrial solar projects on desert habitats. It won’t solve climate change, but it will destroy large swaths of the Desert Southwest. Put solar on rooftops, parking lots, roads, canals, and already disturbed land, not on this.
Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai). Juvenile Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum) foraging on a summer night.
December 19, 2024 at 6:50 PM
lordreptar.bsky.social
The same gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) being held by me. He has very strong claws.

❗It is normally very illegal to handle them without the necessary paperwork, but our group had special clearance❗

#florida #herps #reptiles #wildlife #photography #nature #turtles #tortoises
Me holding the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) whose left forelimb is reaching above his shell, sort of waving.
February 24, 2025 at 6:29 PM
joelmcurzon.bsky.social
Deserts are not wastelands. Stop treating them as if they were.
Mojave desert flora in bloom. Closeup of a Sonoran Sidewinder Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes cercobombus). Pink cholla cactus blossoms and monsoon green. Sonoran Desert. Sonoran Desert Tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) sheltering in a desert wash.
December 9, 2024 at 4:10 AM
grays.art
Gopher Tortoise 🐢
(Gopherus polyphemus)

Koreshan State Historic Site Trail
Collier County, Estero, Florida
10-26-25

Threatened by predation & habitat destruction, keystone species because its burrows shelter 360+ other animal species.

#native #herps #photography #nature #tortoises #turtles #art
Scaly, beaked face looking at us, rough, brown shell, and powerful, shovel-like forelimbs built for digging, sitting on the sand.
October 28, 2025 at 8:58 AM
yovoadahoatoo.bsky.social
A young Texas Tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) photographed in south Texas.

#texastortoise #Texas #tortoise #turtle #gopherus #gopherusberlandieri #herpetology #wildlifebiology #wildlife #wildlifephotography #nature #naturephotography #explore #explorepage #beauty #art #hike #conservation
January 25, 2025 at 9:14 PM
jayparedes.bsky.social
A Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) eating. Photographed on February 21, 2026 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. #reptiles #tortoise #nature #photography #naturephotography #florida #fau #wildlife #wildlifephotography #OMSYSTEM #OM1MarkII
March 5, 2026 at 2:03 PM
azgibsonz.bsky.social
While I was scanning for the Dread Pirate Roadrunner yesterday afternoon, my hawk-like vision spied a small rock move...

...and it stole my heart. ❤️

Counts for #TurtleTuesday too. 🤘🥹

📸 Gopherus agassizii, aka Mojave Desert Tortoise 🐢 #herps

#WildlifeWednesday #DesertTortoise #Wildlife 🌿
Arizona has two native species of tortoise, the Sonoran desert tortoise, Gopherus morafkai; and the Mojave desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii. I am assuming this baby is the latter...because it's Mohave county. Mojave Desert Tortoise populations have declined approximately 90% since 1970 and all remaining populations are on a path to extinction. Eight decades ago, the Mojave Desert was home to hundreds of tortoises per square mile. Today, most tortoise populations in the wild have fallen to 2 to 3 adults per square mile, largely due to climate change, loss of habitat and an increase in the raven population. I may have cut and pasted all that, but I wanted you to know...humans.
October 9, 2024 at 2:50 PM
tjalamont.bsky.social
--responsible for the infection is named after his species: Eddie is a Mojave Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, and the pathogen isolated in the 90s and early 2000s is Mycoplasma agassizii. Another Mycoplasma, M. testudineum, can also cause disease but is usually less harmful. By the way:
March 27, 2025 at 11:11 PM
jayparedes.bsky.social
A Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) portrait. Photographed on March 26, 2025 at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. #reptile #turtle #tortoise #nature #photography #naturephotography #florida #bocaraton #FAU #wildlife #wildlifephotography #OMSYSTEM #OM1MarkII
April 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
tjalamont.bsky.social
🐢🌿 Great wildlife conservation news: I just watched this morning's meeting of the California Fish & Game Commission, at which the Mojave Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) was officially declared "endangered" (uplisted from "threatened") under the California Endangered Species Act. This is great--
A photo, ground level, of a desert tortoise amid green spring annual plants in the desert. The tortoise is gray-brown, with a spot of sunlight backlighting the front of its shell, making it glow like amber.
June 12, 2025 at 4:29 PM
lordreptar.bsky.social
Gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) are a super vulnerable animal in Florida.

❗It is normally very illegal to handle them without the necessary paperwork, but our group had special clearance❗

This one is a male.

#florida #herps #reptiles #wildlife #photography #nature #turtles #tortoises
A male gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) that looks very mad, but they all look like that. He is being held in the air by one of the people in our group. There are two holes visible in the medial scutes made by the researchers at Archbold Biological Station to mark which tortoise is which. The holes do not hurt the tortoises and are done solely to keep track of which tortoise is which. The same male gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) looking less mad. He is being held in the air by one of the people in our group. His large head is almost fully out of the shell. If you look closely, you can see really pretty and extremely dark gray irises in his eyes.
February 24, 2025 at 6:25 PM
themccrackenlab.bsky.social
McCracken Lab PhD Opportunity - Texas tortoise
Seeking a highly motivated and talented PhD student to join our collaborative and dynamic research team starting Fall 2025. Research on the Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri). tinyurl.com/PhDTXtortoise
January 20, 2025 at 7:55 AM
manuelacasasoli.bsky.social
A characteristic of #Science is to correct itself. It often happens because mistakes are frequent. Conversely, it is hard to change course once a policy decision has been made.
Anyway, #conservation policies founded on flawed research have to be re-evaluated.
🧪 #Ecology
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Image Source: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2426166122 Gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) are not currently protected under the Endangered Species Act for most of their range. Errant model predictions have underestimated threats to gopher tortoise populations. Image credit: Shutterstock/Matthew Yoder.
May 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM
theonetruekat.bsky.social
#TortoiseTuesday? Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii. State reptile of California. Despite these peaceful herbivores living in areas humans mostly don’t want to be in, we have still managed to impact them negatively. Such a gift to see one out roaming. #herps #tortoise #deserttortoise #fieldwork
A desert tortoise out roaming amid the desert scrub. Red, rocky soils and boulders in the background. A desert tortoise is seen foraging for plant snacks amid the rocky desert.
February 11, 2025 at 12:05 PM
lordreptar.bsky.social
oh yeah the new pfp is me holding a baby gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyohemus). under normal circumstances, touching them is very illegal. i was not under normal circumstances
February 24, 2025 at 4:37 PM
jbyoder.org
A desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, photographed along the Pinto Basin road in Joshua Tree National Park, way back in 2009 🌿

https://buff.ly/4ePVcHl
A tortoise with a moderately domed shell marked by big pentagonal facets, walking off the edge of some pale gray pavement onto paler brown sand
October 7, 2024 at 7:03 PM
theswampwytch.bsky.social
Happy 11th Birthday #FolkloreThursday! 🎉 Celebrating with the ultimate Southern icon: the Gopher Tortoise. In regional & Indigenous lore, this ancient architect symbolizes community. Its deep burrows shelter over 300 forest species - a beautiful pattern of living together. #Okefenokee #Nature
A close-up photograph of a Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) showing its dark, textured shell, detailed head, and scaly front leg. It is set against a blurry background with blades of green grass in the foreground. Photographer: Jay Williams Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gopher_tortoise_1.jpg Creative Commons license
June 18, 2026 at 12:35 PM
tyrsblade.bsky.social
The Gopher #tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is native to the southeastern US. It's a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide shelter for many other animal species. it's threatened by predation and habitat destruction, the primary reason it's threatened
#savethegreen #photography
June 25, 2025 at 1:34 PM
scottpegan.bsky.social
Gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) in the Florida scrub. They make a funny snort from their nose as a warning signal.
April 30, 2026 at 2:27 PM
lordreptar.bsky.social
Here are pictures of me holding the still-squishy (for a turtle) baby

❗It is normally very illegal to handle them without the necessary paperwork, but our group had special clearance❗

#florida #herps #reptiles #wildlife #photography #nature #turtles #tortoises
A silly 0.5 photo of the baby gopher tortoise in my hand Me holding the baby tortoise and looking down at it. My current profile picture. I am smiling stupidly and looking the tortoise in the eyes. My professor holding the male gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)
February 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM