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

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 ...

Florida’s iconic gopher tortoise is in trouble, experts say. The keystone species, which is vital to ecosystems across six southeastern states, is now “critically endangered,” according to the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Photo Credit: iStock Florida's gopher tortoise, a quiet but vital presence across the Southeast, has received a troubling new ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.— The International Union for Conservation of Nature has published a new assessment that revises the gopher tortoise’s status from “vulnerable” to “critically endangered” on the IUCN ...