Gopher Tortoise deaths: FWC seeks answers after die-off at St. Pete nature preserve

Melissa Marino
·1 min read

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating a mystery at a local nature preserve.

The City of St. Petersburg notified the FWC in March after it discovered more than a third of the population had died at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve.

The gopher tortoise is a protected species known to live in burrows underground, and for its massive size.

“Gopher tortoises live along time. These guys are estimated at least into their 80s,” said Spencer Schultz, an animal care professionalist with ZooTampa.”Finding a die-off of this magnitude is not normal, and is not a good thing.”

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Schultz said gopher tortoises are a very important part of the ecosystem.

“Gopher tortoises are a keystone species so they protect a lot of different other species. Their borrows actually house over 350 different species. So just protecting them, protects a whole lot of other species which is what makes this so important,” said Schultz.

The FWC said they are looking at a number of possible causes.

They tried to collect samples from fresh carcasses and live animals, however no fresh carcasses were available to test and only apparently healthy animals were encountered for sampling, therefore, they have not been able to determine if a disease event contributed to these mortalities, or pathogens.

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The FWC said its staff walked the property and did not observe any shells with punctures or teeth marks consistent with coyotes. FWC biologists set up four trail cameras on the property to monitor coyote interactions with gopher tortoises.

Staff will return later this month to collect and review the captured images.

According to the FWC, the timeline for these deaths is unclear, and the mortalities could have been spread over several months.

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