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Gopher tortoises on Manasota Key, FL

WebSlave

WebSlave

It is what it is, but certainly not what it was.
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Connie and I stay at the Manasota Key Beach Club once or twice a year (trying to make that more frequent now) and one of the major attractions to us is the healthy colony of gopher tortoises that abound on the property. They are obviously constantly exposed to humans, and have become pretty much completely used to having people walking around them, and for the most part they have no fear at all. Some of them you can walk right up to and pat on the head and they don't seem to mind. At one section in the video, Connie actually had to step back because one was looking suspiciously at her toes like he was going to take a bite out of them.

The only bad thing is that we have to be careful when driving into the area so that we don't run any of them over with the car. One of them has a cracked shell, so perhaps that is what happened to him.



This past September we saw a coachwhip snake apparently sharing the burrow with one of the tortoises.
 
There is a rest stop on 95 South near Daytona that has a colony living near the entrance back onto the highway. Whenever we head that way I always try to see them and have more than a few times. it is crazy how close they are to the road!
 
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