Harmless · Native to the United States

Gopher tortoise

Gopherus polyphemus (Daudin, 1802)

The only tortoise native east of the Mississippi
Data updated October 2026

Adult gopher tortoise walking on sandy ground near its burrow, showing a domed tan-brown shell and thick scaly front legs
Fig. 1 — Adult on open sandy ground, where it digs its burrows and grazes.
Close view of a gopher tortoise's head and flattened, shovel-like front legs
Fig. 2 — Flattened, scaly front legs work like shovels for digging.

At a glance

A burrowing land tortoise of the southeastern Coastal Plain and the only tortoise native east of the Mississippi River. Its deep burrows shelter more than 350 other species. It is federally threatened west of the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers and state-threatened in Florida.

01

Identification

A large, high-domed land tortoise with a tan, brown or gray shell and no hinge on the lower shell. The hind feet are stumpy and elephant-like, and the front legs are flattened and covered in thick scales for digging. Hatchlings and young tortoises are marked with yellow-orange and brown, which fades with age. Adult males have a concave lower shell and a projection at its front; females have a flat lower shell.

  1. 01Shovel front legs. Flattened, heavily scaled forelimbs built for digging in sand.
  2. 02Elephant-like hind feet. Stumpy, column-like back legs with no webbing; this is a land animal, not a swimmer.
  3. 03Half-moon burrow. Often the easiest clue: a burrow mouth shaped like a half circle, about as wide as the tortoise, with a sandy apron in front.

Commonly confused with

Box turtles share some of the same woods but are much smaller, have a hinged lower shell that closes tight, and do not dig long burrows.

02

Size

03 in6 in9 in1 ft15 in18 in21 in2 ft Typical adult · about 10 in (25 cm) Large adult · 15 in

Fully grown adults average 9 to 11 inches (23–28 cm) in shell length, and large individuals can reach about 15 inches (38 cm). Growth is slow: males take about 9 to 12 years to mature and females 10 to 21 years.

03

Range & habitat

Gopher tortoise burrow entrance in sandy soil under longleaf pines
Fig. 3 — A burrow mouth in sandy longleaf pine habitat. Burrows average about 15 feet long.

Gopher tortoises live on the southeastern Coastal Plain, from southeastern Louisiana east to southern South Carolina and south through Florida, where they occur in parts of all 67 counties. They need well-drained sandy soil for digging and open, sunny ground for basking and nesting.

Typical habitats are longleaf pine sandhills, scrub, xeric oak hammocks, pine flatwoods, dry prairies and coastal dunes. They also use pastures, roadsides and other disturbed open land. When the canopy closes in without fire, the low plants they eat disappear and tortoises move out.

04

Diet & predators

Gopher tortoises are grazers. They eat low-growing plants such as wiregrass, broadleaf grasses, gopher apple and legumes, plus blackberries and other fruit in season. Most feeding happens within about 160 feet of the burrow.

Feeds on

  • Wiregrass and other grasses
  • Legumes and low herbs
  • Gopher apple
  • Blackberries and seasonal fruit

Preyed on by

  • Raccoons (eggs, hatchlings)
  • Armadillos (eggs)
  • Red imported fire ants (eggs, hatchlings)
  • Free-roaming dogs (harassment)
Wiregrass clumps in an open pine forest
Food — wiregrass.
Raccoon foraging at night
Predator — raccoon (nests and hatchlings).

05

Behavior & seasons

Gopher tortoises spend up to 80% of their time underground. Burrows average about 15 feet long and 6.5 feet deep, and the largest on record were about 40 feet long and 10 feet deep. Inside, temperature and humidity stay fairly steady all year, so the burrow protects the tortoise from summer heat and winter cold. One tortoise often uses several burrows over its life.

More than 350 other species use these burrows, including burrowing owls, Florida mice, gopher frogs and the eastern indigo snake. Tortoises are most active above ground in spring and summer and spend cold spells in their burrows.

06

Reproduction

Breeding can take place from March to October, with most courtship in spring. Each female lays one clutch a year, usually 5 to 9 eggs (range about 3–15), in sand near the burrow entrance between May and July. Eggs hatch after about 80 to 110 days, and hatchlings come out from August to November. There is no parental care. Many nests and hatchlings are lost to predators, and tortoises can live 40 to 60 years in the wild.

07

Conservation

In October 2022 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that listing the gopher tortoise across its whole range was not warranted. The eastern population, east of the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers in Alabama, was also found not to warrant listing at this time. The western population, west of those rivers in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, remains listed as threatened.

Florida lists the gopher tortoise as state-threatened, and Louisiana ranks it critically imperiled and bans taking or keeping wild tortoises. The main threats are habitat loss to development and pine plantations, lack of prescribed fire, road deaths (especially females looking for nest sites), disease and fire ants. See our endangered reptiles tool.

Keep reading

Sources

Data updated October 2026 · How we build these pages