page_title: Gopher tortoise
section_title: Diet
hierarchical_section_title: Gopher tortoise / Behavior / Diet
caption_attribution_description: This is a cute photo of a Baby Gopher Tortoise.
context_page_description: The gopher tortoise is a species of turtle in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide shelter for at least 360 other animal species. G. polyphemus is threatened by predation and habitat destruction.
  The gopher tortoise is a representative of the genus Gopherus, which contains the only tortoises native to North America. This species of gopher tortoise is the state reptile of Georgia and the state tortoise of Florida.
context_section_description: Gopher tortoises are herbivore scavengers. Their diets contains over 300 species of plants. They consume a very wide range of plants, but mainly eat broad-leaved grass, regular grass, wiregrass, and terrestrial legumes. They also eat mushrooms, and fruits such as gopher apple, pawpaw, blackberries, and saw palmetto berries. In addition, gopher tortoises eat flowers from the genera Cnidoscolus (nettles), Tillandsia (Spanish and ball moss), Richardia, and Dyschoriste. Juvenile tortoises tend to eat more legumes, which are higher in protein, and fewer grasses and tough, fibrous plants than mature tortoises. Gopher tortoises have been known to scavenge carrion and eat excrement. As gopher tortoises usually get water from the food they eat, they usually only drink standing water in times of extreme drought.
caption: Carapaces of hatchlings are yellow, but they take on a darker color as they mature
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