Dozens of gopher tortoises survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer, and are enjoying a new lease of life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.
Rangers at Fort de Soto county park near St Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight of the vulnerable species were known to be living there.
Now, after their astonishing journey, a count last month confirmed 84 active burrows, suggesting the tortoises quickly adapted to their new habitat after their enforced eviction from Egmont Key national wildlife refuge, a tiny island more than two miles west that was pummeled by the category 4 hurricane.
As well as sparking a surge of interest in the park in the form of visitors keen to catch a glimpse of the unexpected new arrivals, the tortoises are also providing benefits for some of the animals that already lived in the 1,100-acre (445-hectare) environment.
“They’re a keystone species, which means they share their burrows with other species, and there’s been something like 250 different species recorded as living in gopher tortoise burrows,” said Anna Yu, a Fort De Soto ranger who has assumed responsibility for the roving reptiles’ wellbeing.
“Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there, and we’ll hopefully see an increase in biodiversity in the park. Because we have all these new burrows, other animals are able to use them, like eastern diamondback snakes, black racers, all kinds of different reptiles.
“The last time a gopher frog was listed as being one of the species in the park was in 2016 so it’s really cool to think that maybe some of these really imperiled species that rely on gopher tortoise burrows to survive might make their way back.
“I don’t expect to see frogs popping up everywhere, but there’s certainly more of a chance than before this happened.”
Yu and her colleagues knew the tortoises had come across the water from Egmont Key because biologists from St Petersburg’s Eckerd College, who were studying them, drilled small holes in their shells as identification markings.
Tortoises are poor swimmers, and many would likely have drowned. At least 40 were discovered washed up dead. But the survivors, she said, would have floated and been carried on the surface as Helene’s winds whipped the water surging towards the beaches of the mainland.
“The whole event was just sheer luck that they ended up at Fort De Soto and not out at sea, or at some of the other beaches north of St Pete Beach and Treasure Island, really popular beaches that don’t have the habitat to support these creatures,” she said.
“It could have turned out a lot differently for them.”
Their behaviors since washing ashore have also fascinated observers. Some of the tortoises, presumably traumatized by their hazardous odyssey, burrowed deep into higher elevations. The majority of the burrows, Yu said, were dug beyond Helen’s storm surge line.
“It’s like they knew exactly where to go, they went a little bit higher in hopes of not being drowned out by another storm. There’s a little bit of intelligence there,” she said.
Even more exciting are the mating behaviors some of the tortoises have exhibited, suggesting a new generation of gopher tortoises will soon be plodding around.
“It’s a sign they’re thriving. Being able to mate is a sign of success,” she said.
“The main point in all this is that we want to make sure Fort De Soto is, above all, a wild place and home to an abundance of wildlife that depends on the people that come through, depends on their respect and all of our collective stewardship of their habitat to survive.
“I think this is a really ecologically important event. It’s a feel good story too, of course, but it’s also very critically important environmentally.”
