Once known as 'Hoover chickens,' the long-lived gopher tortoises are now at the center of a growing conservation battle.

For decades, Florida's booming development industry has relied on a controversial conservation strategy to protect one of the state's most iconic reptiles. When construction projects threaten gopher ...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has upgraded the gopher tortoise’s fragility rating from vulnerable to ...

GAINSVILLE, FLA – To improve my chances, and because wandering around sandy scrub at dawn yelling ‘tortoise, please’ isn’t a real strategy, I arranged to meet Katherine Saylor, the Southeastern ...

TALLAHASSEE — Concluding that the animals are “not in danger of extinction,” federal wildlife officials Tuesday rejected listing gopher tortoises in Florida as endangered or threatened species. The ...

Federal wildlife officials will decide in the coming months whether increased protections are needed for gopher tortoises, as Florida looks for ways to move the animals out of the path of development.