Gopher tortoises are fairly elusive creatures. Usually the only
sign you see of them is their burrows or ravaged foliage. But
recently a Mobile, Ala., tortoise allowed Marshall Colburn, a
Soil Conservation Technician with USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS), a rare, up-close-and-personal
moment as she laid her eggs in a freshly cultivated field. “I
was on a landowner’s property doing a site assessment for the
Working Lands for Wildlife program, when I observed a gopher
tortoise laying eggs,” Colburn says. “She had dug a nest about
20 yards away from her burrow in soft soil where the landowner
had planted chufas [a type of nut-grass typically planted for
wildlife] the day before. I was able to stand and take photos
about two feet from the apron of the nest…It was pretty cool!”
The gopher tortoise is known as a keystone species in the
longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast because it digs burrows
that provide shelter and habitat for many other animal species.
It is also considered an indicato