Click HERE for the latest news and announcements from the Gopher Tortoise Council, including:

• Letter from the Co-Chair
• GTC Announcements
• 2024 Annual Meeting Highlights
• Recent Research: 
  • Subterranean refuge use by Burmese pythons (Python bivattatus) in southwestern Florida
  • Randomized climincal trial evaluating a novel Piperazine-based drug as a treatment for Gastric Cryptosporidiosis in eastern indigo snakes (Drymarchon couperi)
  •  Integrating systematic surveys with historical data to model the distribution of Ornithodoros turicata americanus, a vector of epidemiological concern in North America
  • Gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrow associate communities are depauperate in modified landscapes
  • Development of a rapid and reliable surveillance method for Ornithodoros turicata americanus in gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows in the southeastern United States
  • Genomic characterization of two ranavirus isolates identified from a gopher frog (Lithobates capito) and a striped newt (Notophthalmus perstriatus) during a mass mortality event in Florida
  • Management of invasive iguanas mitigates deleterious impacts on an imperiled tortoise
  • Persistence of reptile DNA in a terrestrial substrate: a case study using the eastern indigo snake
  • Development of an assay for the detection of the federally threatened Florida eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi) using soil eDNA
  • Gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) densities and habitat suitability across a xeric-mesic gradient in peninsular Florida, USA