{"id":1867,"date":"2008-12-13T13:54:54","date_gmt":"2008-12-13T17:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2008-12-15T08:00:41","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T13:00:41","slug":"gopher-tortoises-puttin-on-the-ritz-in-naples-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1867","title":{"rendered":"Gopher Tortoises “Puttin on the Ritz” in Naples, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While one half of the Turtle Journal team battles the “Cold Full Moon” of December in the Great White North, the other half explores wildlife along the sunny Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 While one half ducks icy rain that has cut electrical power for a million residents of frozen New England, the other snaps pictures of golden sunsets on tropical beaches.\u00c2\u00a0 A perfect illustration of the inherent unfairness of life!\u00c2\u00a0 And a demonstration of the unselfish dedication of the Turtle Journal team to venture anywhere, even to wildnerness of sunny Florida in winter, to obtain exciting material for its readers.\u00c2\u00a0 You go, Sue!<\/p>\n

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Ritz Carlton Hotel, Naples, Florida<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The team’s favorite hideout in the Naples area is the fabulous Ritz Carlton Hotel<\/a> off Vanderbilt Beach Road.\u00c2\u00a0 Situated on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, any west facing room affords postcard views of the sea across a lush strip of semi-tropical vegetation.\u00c2\u00a0 Within that micro-habitat resides a wealth of nature and critters, including a small population of very fortunate gopher tortoises — a threatened and diminishing species in Florida and neighboring Southeast States.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

“Puttin on the Ritz” (Carlton, Naples, Florida)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ritz Carlton takes justifiable pride in its grounds and in preserving habitat and conserving species on its property.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, when I think of these tortoises building burrows and mounds in one of the goldest of the gold coast properties\u00c2\u00a0in southwest Florida, I can’t get the Irving Berlin tune “Puttin on the Ritz<\/a>” — especially the version as presented by Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein<\/em> — out of my mind.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Gopher Tortoise between Ritz Carlton Hotel and Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus<\/em>) are fairly large land turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 As the name “tortoise” implies, they have elephantine feet in the rear.\u00c2\u00a0 The front (gular) scutes of the plastron (bottom shell) project forward under the neck.\u00c2\u00a0 They are\u00c2\u00a0found in well-drained, sandy uplands at the edge of pine-oak and beach scrub woodlands in the warm, semi-tropical Southeast States.\u00c2\u00a0 They need lush greenery as a food source and open sunshine for viable nesting.\u00c2\u00a0 The more these elements are present within their habitat, the higher the density of tortoises within that habitat.\u00c2\u00a0 These turtles alter their\u00c2\u00a0environment through burrowing, mound building and grazing, creating biodiversity that improves the habitat for gopher tortoises.\u00c2\u00a0 The symbiotic partnership between the staff of the Ritz Carlton and the tortoises themselves maintains a high quality micro-habitat for these magnificent, yet threatened turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 For more information on gopher tortoises, we recommend Turtles of the United States and Canada<\/a><\/em>; Ernst, Lovich & Barbour; Smithsonian Institution Press.\u00c2\u00a0 Click here for a gopher tortoise fact sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Gorpher Tortoise Habitat<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As with all turtles, gopher tortoises disappear within the camouflage of their environment.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially during the cool season in southwest Florida, tortoises spend lots of time inside their burrows until daily temperatures get warm enough to move them to begin browsing.\u00c2\u00a0 Even when rumbling about their habitat, tortoises blend in perfectly with the vegetation that renders them almost invisible.\u00c2\u00a0 Whenever we interview locals, including groundskeeping staff and naturalists, they tell us they never see the turtles any more.\u00c2\u00a0 The same is true for us when we first arrive; it usually takes a couple of days to reorient our search image so that we can begin to pick them out from their environment.<\/p>\n

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Gopher Tortoise Burrow<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the coolness of the morning, and during stormy days, tortoises can be found at the entrance to their large, sturdy burrows.\u00c2\u00a0 Later in the day as temperatures climb they emerge and begin browsing for food.\u00c2\u00a0 When disturbed, tortoises speed back to the safety of their burrows.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Gopher Tortoise Mound between Ritz Carlton and Gulf Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The strip of upland vegetation between the sandy Gulf beach and the\u00c2\u00a0developed grounds of the Ritz Carlton Hotel and\u00c2\u00a0nearby, high rise condominium complexes is\u00c2\u00a0dotted with burrows and mounds, as pictured above, and populated by a nice density of gopher tortoises.\u00c2\u00a0 These areas are well posted to avoid disturbance by the deluge of guests who invade these perfect Gulf of Mexico beaches year-around, and\u00c2\u00a0the vegetations is thick and wild enough to discourage casual trespassing.<\/p>\n

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Gopher Tortoise at Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the Turtle Journal team, no trip to Naples would be complete without a visit to these noble turtles.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, “dumb animals” have discoverd a way to spend their lives in a Garden of Eden on the\u00c2\u00a0Gulf of Mexico,\u00c2\u00a0maintained at peak condition by a staff of “intelligent humans” who would have to save all year for a chance to spend a weekend in a concrete box overlooking this tortoise paradise.\u00c2\u00a0 Gives\u00c2\u00a0one pause about how we define “dumb” and “intelligent” creatures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) While one half of the Turtle Journal team battles the “Cold Full Moon” of December in the Great White North, the other half explores wildlife along the sunny Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 While one half ducks icy rain that has cut electrical power for a million residents of frozen New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}