The Little Tortoise That Could

The following story about a Texas gopher tortoise was submitted by All Things Wild Rehabilitation in Texas.

The Texas gopher tortoise arrived in rehabilitation badly injured. He had been mauled by a dog and was in serious condition.

Texas gopher tortoises are native Texas wildlife. Although the state has listed them as threatened since 1977, their population continues to decline. Because they are small and cute, people pick them up and keep them as pets, which prevents them from breeding.

Based on the condition of the tortoise’s shell, it appeared he was captive-raised. It’s illegal in Texas to collect or hold a Texas gopher tortoise without a permit from Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Torto, our staff’s name for the badly wounded tortoise, has been with us for several weeks while his bandaged shell slowly heals. He lived on hand-fed EmerAid IC Herbivore, electrolyte fluids, pain meds, antibiotics, and Vitamin B until a few days ago when he began to eat on his own.

With advice from an expert at Reptile Conservation International, we are serving a smorgasbord of orange, yellow, and red fruits and vegetables for him to sample, including papaya, yellow squash, and tomato. In the wild, Texas tortoises eat succulents like prickly pear cactus. Prickly pear fruit is their favorite food.

We have been very impressed with Torto’s tenacity to cling to life despite his serious wounds. When he is healed, and with so much determination he will surely heal, he will go to the Texas Gopher Tortoise Project run by Reptile Conservation International (RCI) at the University of Texas. If you go to the meet the turtles section of the RCI website, you’ll see the tortoises in the project. Big Tex and Gopher came from rehabilitation at All Things Wild. With luck, Torto will be joining them in the future. Plus, we understand that Torto is a sexually mature male so he will be an asset to the project.

RCI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to the conservation and restoration of endangered reptiles. For more information about Reptile Conservation International, visit its homepage.

An article about Gopher, entitled “Tortoises Times Two,” was in our August 2020 newsletter.