Federal wildlife officials say the threatened gopher tortoise does not need protections under the Endangered Species Act in most parts of Alabama, but wildlife advocates say the decision is short ...

Last week, the federal government denied protections to the gopher tortoise—a keystone species—east of the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers. Though this doesn’t change much for the gopher ...

Gopher tortoises — burrowers whose extensive homes shelter many other animals — are generally doing well and need federal protection only in the small area where they were declared threatened ...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— Following a petition and lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today denied Endangered Species Act protections to the eastern ...

USA TODAY's Jasper Colt was covering a story at the National Training Center Track Complex, where Olympic sprinter Noah Lyles trains, when he spotted the slow-and-steady gopher tortoise.

But something stood out in the rubble: Where the sea and shore met, in the shallow waves, there was a tannish-brown gopher tortoise. And then another. And another. “That’s odd,” Harshbarger ...

That's why biologists at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources were so surprised when they peered into a gopher tortoise burrow in Tattnall county on Wednesday, only to find a 4.5-foot gator ...

Hillsborough County commissioners have rejected extra protections for gopher tortoises, a threatened species in the state of Florida. But, they didn’t publicly say why. They also offered no ...

That's right. Spray paint. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples recently treated two gopher tortoises that were spray painted by someone who thought it might be a fun idea to do that ...

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Manatee County's newly opened "Gopher Tortoise Resort" got its first VIP guest checking things out ahead of the arrival of future re-homed resident tortoises. Touted for ...