Gopher tortoises tend to be solitary animals, but during the summer, they socialize because it’s mating season.

A gopher tortoise eats along on Inlet Drive on July 6, 2024. The threated species and its burrows are protected under Florida law.

They are not very long in body, about 6-8 inches. Moles like to eat the worms, snails, slugs and insects underground; however, the tunneling disrupts plant roots, bulbs and grass.

All herbivores eat plants, and everybody poops,” says J.T. Pynne, a wildlife biologist at the Georgia Wildlife Federation in Covington who studies southeastern pocket gophers.

Simply eating the roots found along each tunnel system wouldn’t be worth the energy required. “Something didn’t click,” Putz says. Every meter of tunnel a gopher dug would cost it about a ...

Gophers can be destructive, eating your plants and killing or stunting the growing of trees. Moles, however, are harmless and the most damage they do is to the aesthetics of yard as they leave ...