OUR TOWN
48 Port St. Lucie Magazine
RUSTY DURHAM
gopher tortoise makes its way across a lawn at Port St. Lucie
Botanical Gardens. Tortoises are vegetarians and eat foliage,
flowers and fruits. With front legs adapted for digging, tortoises
create extensive burrows in which they live. There, they are
protected from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, as
well as from forest fires and predators. Gopher tortoises are a
threatened species and are protected under Florida state law. A