NAPLES DAILY NEWS (Florida) 02 May 07 World’s largest gopher tortoise crushed in Fort Myers
The world’s largest gopher tortoise has died from wounds suffered when he was crushed on a Fort Myers construction site, according to The Humane Society of the United States.
"Phoenix" weighed 26.45 pounds -– after four weeks of no solid food and artificial hydration. His upper shell measured 16.41 inches. The previous record was 15.24 inches. Age is difficult to determine in tortoises, but one expert estimated that Phoenix was between 50 and 100 years old.
Phoenix earned his nickname when a Fort Myers construction worker buried the tortoise after he was crushed, likely by a backhoe. Several days later someone saw the badly injured tortoise emerge from the grave and took him to a wildlife rehabilitator in Okeechobee. The tortoise lived nearly two weeks, but attempts to heal his wounds were not successful.
The wildlife rehabilitator, Amanda Elfenback, brought Phoenix to Ray Ashton, Ph.D. of the Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative in Gainesville, where the tortoise was studied further and measurements were documented.
The construction was apparently conducted without a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Thousands of gopher tortoises are crushed or buried alive on construction sites each year. Lee County is among a handful of counties that prohibit developers from entombing live tortoises.
According to The Humane Society of the United States, Florida developers can pay a fee for an "incidental take" permit to get permission to bury live tortoises. The state uses the permit money to buy gopher tortoise habitat elsewhere. But only a small portion of the tortoise's habitat has been recovered, and the state doesn't require that the purchased land have gopher tortoises already living on it. In 2006 alone, the state handed out permits that give developers the right to kill more than 12,500 imperiled gopher tortoises, a Human Society news release reports.
For years, biologists have successfully relocated tortoises using a "soft release" method, and the Humane Society of the United States urges Florida to adopt this more humane method. To counteract the gopher tortoises' natural homing instinct that makes them try to return to their previous home, biologists create barriers around burrows with hay bales or silt fencing to for at least nine months. By that time, the tortoises are acclimated to their new territory. Tortoises that aren't relocated using the "soft release" method may wander miles in search of their previous home and may die from starvation, predation, exposure or speeding cars.
As it stands now, the state doesn't require the enclosures, or even any monitoring to see if relocated tortoises are staying put.
"FWC's new draft management plan offers some protection for the tortoises, but it won't take effect quickly enough, and thousands more tortoises will die," the Humane Society reports. "It doesn't require "soft release" relocations. Also, developers who already hold permits to crush tortoises have the permits forever -- in effect, they will be "grandfathered" to keep killing tortoises indefinitely."
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/may/02/worlds_largest_gopher_tortoise_crushed_fort_myers/?breaking_news
