are there any tortoises illegal to own?

[Tom]

plowshares..

Not illegal to own. But good luck finding one, much less paying for it.

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Has anyone ever heard of a Gopher Tortoise? I helped one cross the road several years ago down south. It was so cool. We let it go because someone told us they were a protected species. I've never seen another one since then. I apologize for asking , I just seen up a few threads where this species was already mentioned.

Gophers are one of the one of our endemic species. Those are one of the exceptions that I mentioned earlier. All of the Gopher species ARE protected, but you can get permits to keep them in their home states in most cases. I don't know what FL law says about keeping Gopher tortoises. Maybe one of our FL members can fill us in.

 

[critters88]

Hi just wondering where you are from in MN. Im in SD

 

[sissyofone]

@ crusier12 I was in Alabama when I found that one it was a descent sized one. We kept it over night and took it back where we found it but away from the road and let it go.

 

[cruiser12]

Very nice find!

 

[RedfootsRule]

Tom,
That would be an N and and O. I believe, if you owned them before...I think sometime in the 90s? (not quite sure on the year, sometime a couple decades ago) then you could apply for a license just to keep the ones you already own. There is no license that you can apply for to own new ones anymore, at least not that I know of. In fact, you need a permit to even touch one in the wild (I do it anyways, guilty as charged ) So as close as you can get is enjoying them in the wild . Which there actually fairly easy to find, if you look in the right places....