Happy Turtle Tuesday! 🐢 This week's species spotlight is the Gopher Tortoise. The Gopher Tortoise is considered a keystone species here in South Florida! This means that they are extremely important for the overall structure of their ecosystems. Due to habitat loss, these amazing creatures have unfortunately become a state-designated threatened species! Gopher tortoises are primarily herbivorous, meaning that their diet is predominantly plant based. Some of their all-time favorite foods are gra

✨Intern Highlight✨ Our animal care tech intern, Emily, helped out with a gopher tortoise release last week! By buildling a starter burrow for this young gopher tortoise, eventually this burrow could be 30 feet long! Thank you to our staff member and intern for getting this important keystone species back into the wild!🐢 #FloridaWildlifeHospital #gophertortoise #burrow #keystonespecies #wildliferelease #RescueRehabRelease #floridawildlife #florida #wildliferehab #KeepingWildlifeWild | Florida Wi