The gopher tortoise is one of five North American tortoise species and is the only tortoise naturally found east of the Mississippi River. Its range includes the southeastern Coastal Plain from southeastern Louisiana east to southern South Carolina, and south to Florida. Gopher tortoises occur in parts of all 67 Florida counties.
The gopher tortoise is unique in that it is Federally listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act only in the portion of its range occurring west of the Mobile and Tombigbee Rivers in Alabama (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1987). In the eastern portion of its range, the gopher tortoise is a Candidate species for federal protection (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2011). The gopher tortoise has some form of state-level protection in each state which it occurs and is a State-designated Threatened species in Florida
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