G7- Gopher Tortoises_Grade level_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 to those who care about the environment. Limiting factors are those factors that limit the growth, abundance, or distribution of an organism or organisms in an ecosystem. 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. Every time a new subdivision or shopping mall is built, gopher tortoises lose valuable real estate. The roads we drive on daily are also major barriers to tortoises that 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 to prevent gopher tortoise mortality from traffic. In your area, it is up to good Samaritans like you and your dad to save gopher tortoises from the dangers of traffic.

As the drive continues, you and your dad 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 types of assistance we can provide is to educate others about the important role of the gopher tortoise to the ecosystem. The other assistance we can provide is to explain how encroachment of civilization is a limiting factor that only we can control.