Vertebrate Fauna Associated with Gopher Tortoise Burrows in Southeastern Florida

Jessica Huffman^1,*, Jessene Aquino-Thomas², Laura De Souza³, Jennifer Unger⁴, and Evelyn Frazier⁵

¹South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL 33406. ²USDA-ARS Invasive Plant Research Laboratory, Davie, FL 33314. ³St. George’s University Medical School, University Centre, West Indies, Grenada. ⁴Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, North Grafton, MA 01536. ⁵Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 24, Issue 2 (2025): 200–222

First published early online: 25 June 2025

Abstract
Gopherus polyphemus (Gopher Tortoise) is a burrowing chelonian endemic to the southeastern US and classified as state threatened in Florida. Gopher Tortoises are ecosystem engineers and keystone species. Gopher Tortoise populations in southeastern Florida are poorly studied, and by extension, the information on the vertebrate species associated with their burrows has been understudied. Furthermore, not much is known about how these communities differ among sites with varying environmental characteristics. We deployed 24 motion-triggered cameras at active adult Gopher Tortoise burrows for 18 months at 4 study locations encompassing 3 land-use cover types across 3 southeastern Florida sites. Excluding Gopher Tortoises, at least 44 vertebrates were observed at Gopher Tortoise burrows, 42 of which were identified to species-level. The presence of vertebrate species associated with Gopher Tortoise burrows varied among all study locations. This research provides a baseline study of the vertebrate species associated with Gopher Tortoise burrows in these locations in southeastern Florida, and ultimately provides comparative data for future research.

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