{"id":8448,"date":"2011-03-14T12:09:14","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T17:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8448"},"modified":"2011-03-14T12:44:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T17:44:22","slug":"gopher-turtle-opens-the-new-research-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=8448","title":{"rendered":"Gopher Turtle Opens the New Research Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-005-840.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8458\" title=\"gtn 005 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-005-480.jpg\" alt=\"gtn 005 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-005-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-005-480-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Male Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), Naples, FL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">For turtle researchers (and Turtle Journal), March can be the cruelest month as we wait for our local turtle species to rise from long winter brumation.\u00c2\u00a0 The perfect fix is a trip to the Florida Gulf Coast and a visit with these tank-like gopher tortoises.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-007-840.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8462\" title=\"gtn 007 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-007-480.jpg\" alt=\"gtn 007 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-007-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-007-480-289x300.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Vanderbilt Beach in Mid-March<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">As Turtle Journal&#8217;s Sue Wieber Nourse walked Vanderbilt Beach in Naples this week and enjoyed the beauty of the Gulf Coast&#8217;s wildlife, she encountered\u00c2\u00a0a fabulous male gopher tortoise preparing for the spring season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-002-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8452\" title=\"gtn 002 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-002-480.jpg\" alt=\"gtn 002 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-002-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-002-480-228x300.jpg 228w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Male Gopher Tortoise Plastron<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A\u00c2\u00a0middle aged turtle of size and stature, he was still a bit chilled by the front that had passed through Florida\u00c2\u00a0the end of last week.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-003-840.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8454\" title=\"gtn 003 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-003-480.jpg\" alt=\"gtn 003 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-003-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/gtn-003-480-300x293.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Left Rear Ped of Male Gopher Tortoise<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The close up of his left rear pad made us wonder how different it would be dealing with specimens of this bulk during our research season here in the Great White North.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/GTN-006-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8460\" title=\"GTN 006 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/GTN-006-480.jpg\" alt=\"GTN 006 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/GTN-006-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/GTN-006-480-260x300.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Ritz Carlton&#8217;s Natures Wonders<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">Just down the beach from where this gopher tortoise resides in the literally &#8220;richest&#8221; turtle property in the world, Sue spotted a new addition at the Ritz Carlton&#8217;s Natures Wonders display.\u00c2\u00a0 Is that a hatchling or perhaps a totem to encourage another record loggerhead nesting season on Vanderbilt Beach?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Male Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), Naples, FL For turtle researchers (and Turtle Journal), March can be the cruelest month as we wait for our local turtle species to rise from long winter brumation.\u00c2\u00a0 The perfect fix is a trip to the Florida Gulf Coast and a visit with these tank-like gopher tortoises. Vanderbilt Beach in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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\/8448"}],"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=8448"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8475,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8448\/revisions\/8475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}