Florida wildlife officials are considering steeper fines for molesting threatened gopher tortoises as the cost for re-homing them to reptile reservations outpaces penalties levied for burying them ...

Manatee County is doing its part to save the gopher tortoise with a new relocation program aimed at protection and in hopes of increasing their population. The gopher tortoise is federally listed as ...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has issued an executive order that weakens protections for tortoises displaced from development sites around the state and ...

Florida conservationists said they were blindsided by an executive order last month that allows developers to relocate threatened gopher tortoises anywhere in the state. The order issued Nov. 18 was ...

TALLAHASSEE --- State wildlife officials defended an emergency order that expands how far threatened gopher tortoises can be relocated as booming development continues in Florida. But members of the ...

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) -- Land management agencies would have to consider finding areas suitable for gopher tortoises that get pushed from their homes by development, under a measure sent to the ...

Gopher tortoises are known for their love of burrowing. But removing the protected creatures from their lengthy tunnels is costly as county officials recently learned. The removal was necessary to ...

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is extending most of the provisions of an executive order that conservationists say favors development over gopher tortoises. Florida Fish and ...

“It was just peaceful and quiet. We loved the area. My aunt actually lives right next door,” she says. “And it would be within the same school district that our kids are in now.” The plan was simple: ...