SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, AUGUST 4, 1893. 



THE FLORIDA LAND TORTOISE-GOPHER, GOPHERUS 

 POLYPHEMUS. 



BT HENRY G. HUBBARD, DETROIT, MICH. 



It seems very strange that so little has been known, or at least 

 has been published about the habits of this very common animal. 

 Winter visitors to Florida and the Gulf States often observe their 

 burrows on the sandy ridges, each with its yawning entrance 

 and scattered mound of subsoil, and are not unlilsely to mistake 

 them for the woodchuck lioles with which they are familiar at the 

 north. It is the permanent resident, however, that is most 

 likely to have some acquaintance with the animal itself; for only 

 in the hottest weather and at noonday does the gopher leave its 

 burrow to feed upon the surrounding grass and herbage. 



In summer, when the thermometer is in the nineties, the ani- 

 mal comes forth daily, some time between the hours of eleven 

 A.M. and two p.m., and takes a careful look around to assure 

 itself that no danger threatens. Then, if no ominous sounds dis- 

 turb the stillness of the sultry air, it raises itself high on its un- 

 gainly legs and starts briskly off for the nearest patch of grass or 

 cultivated field. 



For about an hour the gopher wanders about with its long 

 neck outstretched and plucks ravenously at every green vegeta- 

 ble within its reach. Often, indeed, in its eagerness it cracks up 

 and swallows dead twigs and dry leaves together with the more 

 succulent food, until its ravenous appetite is appeased. It then 

 retires to the bottom of its burrow in the moist, cool sand, there 

 to remain until the morrow or, if the season be rainy, until the 

 next dry, hot day. 



The gopher is a very timid and alert animal, and although it 

 feeds with great gusto and apparent abandon, it is seldom so ab- 

 sorbed in its work that it fails to hear the sound of approaching 

 footsteps. Tne near approach of any large amimal sends it scur- 

 rying back to its hole. It requires lively work to head off its re- 

 treat, but if surprised and captured at a distance from its hole, 

 like other turtles, it retires into its shell, and, drawing its plethoric 

 and scaly fore paws like double doors over the front of its shell, 

 it resigns itself supinely to its fate, and never under any circum- 

 stances attempts to bite or otherwise defend itself. 



In winter the gopher very rarely quits its burrow, and comes 

 forth to feed only on the very hottest days at noon. In the warm 

 Florida soil it is never torpid, but remains quiescent at the end 

 of its gallery awaiting the return of dog day weather. 



A well grown gopher measures 10 inches in length by 7| inches 

 in width and 4^ inches in thickness, and weighs about 6 pounds. 

 Individuals are sometimes found measuring 13 x 9^ x 5 inches, 

 and weighing 9 or 10 pounds. 



They are sold in the markets of many towns at high prices, 

 and are eaten by the negroes and lower classes everywhere in the 

 south. The flesh is excellent in quality, very tender, of a rich 

 red color and has the appearance, flavor and odor of beef. But 

 the supply of meat obtainable even from individuals of the larg- 

 est size is scanty, the greater part of the body cavity being occu- 

 pied by the enormous gut crammed with grass and the long in- 

 testines filled with wads of fibrous dung. The flesh is greatly 

 relished by all carnivorous animals, but a gopher of average size 

 has little to fear from their attacks. The largest dogs are unable 

 to bring their canine teeth to bear upon any vulnerable part un- 

 less the specimen is young and small enough to be taken into 

 their mouths. 



In May or June the female deposits in the sand outside of her 

 burrow from one dozen to twenty eggs. The eggs are perfectly 



spherical, pure while in color and have a diameter of If inches. 

 More beautiful objects can hardly be found to grace an oological 

 cabinet. 



The burrows of the gopher are excavated by the aid of a re- 

 markable spade-shaped projection on the front of the under shell, 

 assisted by the powerful fossorial front legs, which are armed for 

 this purpose with strong blunt claws. 



In the sandy uplands of Florida the galleries descend at an 

 angle of about 35°, and reach a vertical depth of seven to nine 

 feet from the surface of the ground. They follow a straight 

 course unless deflected by a root or some other obstruction and 

 usually terminate in a layer of indurated soil. The length of the 

 gallery varies from twelve to eighteen feet. The temperature at 

 the lower end does not vary greatly throughout the year, and 

 will generally not fall below 74° in winter nor rise above 79° in 

 summer. The conditions as to moisture are probably equally 

 constant. At Crescent City, Fla., where these observations were 

 made, the permanent water table lies at an average depth of 

 eighteen feet. The burrow of a gopher once completed becomes 

 its permanent residence, and it is with extreme difficulty that the 

 animal can be compelled to vacate and excavate a new home. 



It is inhabited by the same individual for long periods of time, 

 and if the popular belief in the great age attained by turtles in 

 general and the land tortoise in particular is well founded, some 

 of these reptilian domiciles may have antedated the present cen- 

 tury, and even rival in antiquity the dwellings of man. Certain 

 burrows in this vicinity are pointed out as having been in exist- 

 ence twenty-four years ago, when the oldest orange groves were 

 planted. This necessarily implies a continuous occupancy by the 

 same individual tortoise during that period, since if the galleries 

 are abandoned they shortly become filled up and obliterated in 

 our shifting sand. 



Every naturalist will appreciate under the above showing 

 what unusually favorable conditions here exist for the preserva- 

 tion of animal life, and will not be surprised to learn that these 

 little sand caves, with their equable climate, permanent and 

 abundant moisture, perpetually and hospitably open to the outer 

 air, afford an asylum and a domicile to a most interesting assem- 

 blage of animals. The list of these, when it shall have been com- 

 pleted, bids fair to become a long one. 



Not only the Florida burrowing owl, the rattlesnake, the rab- 

 bit, the raccoon and the opossum find in them a temporary 

 shelter, but another vertebrate also, a frog, here takes up its per- 

 manent abode and lives on terms of perfect friendship with the 

 gopher. This frog is the sub-species Rmia areolata cesopus, a 

 beautiful form, with soft subterranean coloration and crepuscu- 

 lar, toad-like habits.' 



It is not at all rare, nearly every gopher hole harbors one or 

 several specimens. They may be seen at evening sitting just out- 

 side the entrance of the burrow, and frequently in the morning 

 or on cloudy days their softly radiant eyes may be detected 

 gleaming out of the shadows a few feet back (rom the entrance. 

 It is not easy to capture them, except with a baited hook and 

 line, for at the slightest alarm they leap quickly down the yawn- 

 ing throat of the gallery and disappear from view. Specimens 

 of this frog have been seen which would weigh more than a 

 pound, and individuals of colossal proportions are reported to 

 exist. 



In January and during July of the present year more than a 

 dozen species of articulates have been discovered living in the 

 gopher holes. The majority are undescribed and new to science. 



' Mr. Fred'k C. Test, of the National Museum, who kindly determined the 

 species, writes: "Only one specimen, the type, Is in the museum collection 

 or presumably In any other." The type speclmeD came from Mlcanopy, Fla., 

 probably without notes of habits, etc. 



