# Plrase I.D. this tortoise on a rescue site



## Livinlavitaboca (Jul 27, 2021)




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## zovick (Jul 27, 2021)

Livinlavitaboca said:


> View attachment 329911


Gopher Tortoise. It is illegal to take them from the wild or to keep in captivity as far as I know


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## Toddrickfl1 (Jul 27, 2021)

Desert tortoise I think.


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## Livinlavitaboca (Jul 27, 2021)

zovick said:


> Gopher Tortoise. It is illegal to take them from the wild or to keep in captivity as far as I know


I have three gophers in my yard. The scutes don’t look right.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 27, 2021)

Is the rescue site in California or Florida? Those eyes say desert tortoise to me, but if Florida, it's a gopher tortoise.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 27, 2021)

Livinlavitaboca said:


> zovick said:
> 
> 
> > Gopher Tortoise. It is illegal to take them from the wild or to keep in captivity as far as I know





and shouldn't be on a rescue site


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## TeamZissou (Jul 27, 2021)

I vote DT as well


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## Livinlavitaboca (Jul 27, 2021)

Yvonne G said:


> Is the rescue site in California or Florida? Those eyes say desert tortoise to me, but if Florida, it's a gopher tortoise.


FL but it looks like the desert tortoise. Up in Destin


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## zovick (Jul 28, 2021)

Livinlavitaboca said:


> FL but it looks like the desert tortoise. Up in Destin


The two species are members of the same genus and do look alike. I am not sure what the readily visible differences between the two are, if any do exist.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 28, 2021)

zovick said:


> The two species are members of the same genus and do look alike. I am not sure what the readily visible differences between the two are, if any do exist.


I've never seen a Gopher up close, but the eyes on the tortoise in this picture are the eyes of a desert tortoise for sure. Maybe Gophers have those eyes too, I don't know.


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## zovick (Jul 28, 2021)

Yvonne G said:


> I've never seen a Gopher up close, but the eyes on the tortoise in this picture are the eyes of a desert tortoise for sure. Maybe Gophers have those eyes too, I don't know.


I have seen both species and they look pretty similar to me. I would have to have a scientific book to tell them apart for sure.

Thinking about this a bit more, the one in the first picture might even be a TX Tortoise because they look very much same as Gopher and Desert Tortoises (at least to me). Although the TX species doesn't get as large as adults of the other two species, the younger ones might all look much the same.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 28, 2021)

zovick said:


> I have seen both species and they look pretty similar to me. I would have to have a scientific book to tell them apart for sure.
> 
> Thinking about this a bit more, the one in the first picture might even be a TX Tortoise because they look very much same as Gopher and Desert Tortoises (at least to me). Although the TX species doesn't get as large as adults of the other two species, the younger ones might all look much the same.


The majority of the Texans have a big 'V' instead of a nuchal scute, however, there are so many DT/Texas crosses that a few of the Texans have a nuchal scute. I have six berlandieri and two of them have a nuchal scute.


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## William Lee Kohler (Aug 11, 2021)

Having pyramiding doesn't help with ID but what would a Desert be doing in FL? I'd vote Gopher unless shell is rounder(looking down on it)than Gopher or Desert which could make it Berlandiers.


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