G7- Gopher Tortoises_Approaching_03

Currently, the gopher tortoise is under such a threat. Therefore, you and your dad do your best to protect them. The roads we build and the very homes we live in are threats to gopher tortoises. These threats, or limiting factors, are of great concern. Limiting factors are those factors that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism. These factors can include food sources, shelter, water, space, disease, parasitism, predation, and nesting sites.

Human population growth is a limiting factor on the environment. With the population growth occurring in many areas, gopher tortoises are losing their habitats. This loss of habitat happens every time a new subdivision or shopping mall is built. The roads we drive on daily are also major barriers to tortoises. Gopher tortoises are used to moving about without restriction. For a slow-moving tortoise, modern highways are a death trap. Fortunately, in some areas, local governments have constructed barriers. These barriers help to prevent gopher tortoise mortality from traffic. In your area, it is up to good Samaritans like you and you father to save them from the dangers of traffic.    

As the drive continues, you and your father discuss limiting factors and their effects on the gopher tortoises in your area. “There must be a way to help save gopher tortoises,” you state. There are many things we could do to help. One of the most important is educating others about the value of the gopher tortoise to the ecosystem. The other is to explain how the spread of people is a limiting factor that only we can control.