Via Tiny Animals On Fingers

Allison Nichols of Pensacola, Florida saved a bleeding gopher tortoise from near-certain blood-clotting Friday, in a precious act of wild animal empathy. Her mother did the right thing by calling The Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida, as it is illegal to disturb the federally protected gopher tortoise.

More.

Even after paying over a half million dollars to The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to build on top of gopher tortoise burrows, Hutson Co. plans to move at least 500 tortoises to safe ground before building.

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"The Army has awarded a five-year, $6.9 million contract to relocate desert tortoises in the Mojave Desert.

The contractor, ITS Corp. will locate, track, capture, translocate and study the estimated 700 to 1,000 threatened desert tortoises that currently live on part of the U.S. Army’s National Training Center Ft. Irwin, according to a statement from the company. That equates to an average of $6,900 per tortoise."

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Via bix.

Or if you don't happen to have this stuff in your trash, you'll need to go out and purchase:

"Amanda Cole-Hargie, 26-year-old photographer, said: 'I was taking a nap when I was woken by this continual banging noise.

'I traced it to next door's garden and there was Percy, nutting the ball against the fence over and over again.'

Percy's owners, Dave Miles, a paramedic, and his wife Jo, social work resource officer, said the tortoise had been playing football ever since their three children started kicking balls around in the garden at their Brighton home.

'Maybe he thinks the football is a potential mate - we just don't know - but his football crazy play is keeping him healthy.'"

Via.

"Developers will no longer be allowed to bury gopher tortoises alive during construction under a moratorium approved Wednesday by state wildlife commissioners.

Under current gopher tortoise rules, developers are allowed to seek permits to bury them alive rather than relocate them during construction projects. About 70,000 gopher tortoises have been buried in the past 14 years under the state permitting system.

The tortoises, which can live for weeks before suffocating after entombment, burrow in sandy, dry areas such as dunes and have survived for 60 million years. Biologists estimate their numbers have dropped by up to 80 percent in the last century due to coastal development."

More:
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070613/APN/706131929
http://www.bradenton.com/186/story/72916.html
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3483919&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1 (Disregard the photo of the poor sulcata that was hit by a car -- his plight is not related to that of the gopher tortoise.)

UK blogger Ms Cellania was lucky enough to catch her tortoise "Tog" laying eggs yesterday morning and shot this video. Check it out!

My own sulcata tortoise "Tetchie" laid a couple clutches of eggs over the past two or three years that I had her. (She has since been relocated to warmer climes.) Below is one photo of her in action in April 2005 (alas, from the front) and a closeup of one of her eggs in my hand.

Why Save Sea Turtles?
This series of essays discusses conservation of endangered sea turtles, covering reasons for conserving them (including "explanations that are valid even to 'anti-environmentalists'"), health assessment of sea turtles, turtle tracking, and related topics. Includes links to other sea turtle content and activities. From the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

Turtles in Trouble
This short presentation centers on the protection of endangered sea turtles. It includes photos of sea turtles and of the danger they face (such as nets and excessive seaweed), a map showing one sea turtle's migration and a related video clip, and website links. From National
Geographic Kids Magazine.

Blogger Carel Brest van Kempen writes a great read and paints a beautiful picture in his blog Rigor Vitae of the United States gopher tortoise.

"That’s not the beginning of a joke. It’s what one caller this weekend told Jacque Barborak, whose 65-pound African Sulcata turtle went missing after escaping from his Hermitage home on June 10.

According to the caller, Barborak’s turtle, whose name is Gus, was spotted Saturday in a Farrell bar.

The land tortoise is apparently alive and may be in the possession of a man who wants a reward to return the turtle, according to another phone call Barborak received.

Barborak, whose 7-year-old reptilian pet escaped, said he got a call from a woman demanding a $100 reward for the animal. When he refused to pay, she hung up.

'It’s just knowing he’s out there, and they won’t give him back,' he said. Police told him he may not get the turtle back, and his children are still upset by the disappeared pet."

More.

Via.

I have no explanation why the folks over at eat-stuff.net filed this under "recipes" (I hate to guess!) but they took some great videos of hatchling sea turtles emerging:

Turtle videos

Here you can view a snapping turtle actually laying eggs:

Snapping turtle laying eggs