Gopher Tortoise Research Paper

Gopher tortoise are ectotherms that can mostly be found in the southeastern parts of the United States because of the sunnier weather in that area. They are known for digging burrows underground that can be 12 meters long and 3 meters deep. Many species live with the gopher tortoise in the burrows that they make for protection against fire, predators and also for warmth during the cold nights and to stay cool in the hot days. Species that lives with the gopher tortoise includes: rabbits, burrowing owls, mouse, frogs and many different types of small insects. Since the gopher tortoise are considered as threatened species, it has become very important to protect them as the burrows that they dig helps to increase the diversity of species in the area. There are also many causes that has led to them becoming threatened such as their low reproduction rate, loss of habitat due to urbanization and the predators that prey on their eggs and young hatchlings. Because the gopher tortoise can only lay up to 8 eggs in one year, protecting the eggs from predators like coyotes or raccoons is crucial for their future population. Also, protecting the young hatchlings is just as important because they are still

vulnerable to be preyed on as their hard shell is not fully developed yet.
It is important to study about the gopher tortoise since they are threatened.

However, it is also just as important to learn more about their predators because they are one of the main causes for the decrease of the tortoise population. That is why we have designed an experiment to find out when predators come out to hunt for the eggs and young hatchlings. Our prediction is that predators of the gopher tortoise will tend to come hunt more at night since gopher tortoise are less active at night time. Therefore, if gopher tortoise are resting in their burrows then predators will come out to find the eggs. The independent variable of this study are the predators. The dependent variables will be day and night. This study will be conducted through observations from

pictures.

Materials and Methods
For this study, cameras were used in order to capture the activities surrounding the gopher tortoise’s burrows. Ten cameras were placed right in front of the gopher tortoise’s burrow in the grassland area and another ten cameras were places outside the tortoises burrow’s in the dense vegetation areas on the FAU preserve. All the cameras used have motion sensors which takes pictures whenever there is movement in front of the camera. Every week the SD cards will be collected then replaced to download the pictures into our laptops. All the pictures will include the time, date, and temperature of when it is taken.

Conclusion
From the table above, we can conclude that predators of the gopher tortoise can be seen to be more active during the night time rather than in the day. Therefor my hypothesis stating that predators of the gopher tortoise comes out at night to hunt because the tortoises are less active at night time is proven to be true. However, there are signs from some of the pictures of the tortoise being out of their burrow at night. It could be that they were disturbed by something inside their burrow or noises from outside, but it is rarely seen. The predators that were captured by the cameras were coyote, raccoon, snake and iguana. This study does contain some limitations. Because the cameras only captured images in the front, we weren’t able to see if there were predators that were behind or to the side of the camera. Also some images aren’t as clear, so there might be things that were unnoticed. Overall, this experiment was successful, but further studies can be done to further confirm the results.