Enchanted Forest Sanctuary Friends of the Enchanted Forest
		Gopher Tortoise Census Xavier de Seguin des Hons, North Region Land Manager, Environmentally Endangered Lands Program Paul A. Schlueb, Chairman, FaunaWorks Committee, Friends of the Enchanted Forest, Inc. Friends of the Enchanted Forest "Sponsor a Tortoise" Program

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The Enchanted Forest Sanctuary (EFS) is a 428 acre preserve that is part of a network of Sanctuaries in Brevard County managed by the Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program. A census of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) is being used to estimate the number of gopher tortoises that inhabit the EFS. Findings will be used as a baseline to measure any major population fluctuations that may occur at this site and will provide one level of feedback on current land management practices. The findings will also be compared against current methods of estimating gopher tortoise populations using only burrow surveys. Additional data collected during the census process from each permanently identified tortoise (carapace length, sex, weight, known burrow locations, etc.) and each tortoise burrow surveyed (burrow width, activity level, etc.) can be used in further population studies, growth rate analysis studies, population migrations or fluctuations and fecundity studies at this and sites with similar habitats and dynamics.

Conduct burrow surveys.

Identify all possible gopher tortoise habitat (including that seen as marginal) using aerial images, soil and natural communities maps. All maps obtained were "ground proofed" to ensure that nearly all desirable survey areas were identified.

A great variety in the species.
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Record locations and data (burrow width, activity level, curve, and date surveyed) for each burrow encountered during the survey in a hand-held GPS with ArcPad software installed. Gopher tortoise burrow activity levels were simplified to A = active or I = inactive. This was crucial in planning the 2 week pitfall trapping period in that all burrows deemed "active" were any burrows that had even the slightest possibility of being inhabited by a tortoise and thus a trap set. Burrows labeled "inactive" would have little to no chance of producing a tortoise if a trap was set. This would include all burrows typically considered "highly inactive" and "abandoned. Aside from being entered in the GPS, each burrow was assigned a name (e.g. AP15) and then marked in the field using fire resistant aluminum tree tags tied to hollow conduit.

Using burrow survey data, a two week period of pitfall trapping was undertaken. Active burrows in areas of the sanctuary that were infrequently visited on a normal basis were targeted first because of the lowered chances of tortoises being encountered in those areas. Traps consist of a five gallon plastic bucket with the bottom cut off for drainage during rain which is placed at the entrance of the burrow and the top of the bucket should be level with the burrow entrance. The bucket is covered with aluminum foil and a thin layer of leaves and sand for camouflage. Buckets were checked for tortoises twice daily. Once in the mid morning and then an then about an hour or two before dusk. (in late March dusk is about 7 p.m. in Brevard County)

Gopher tortoises encountered during burrow surveys or other activities were permanently identified using PIT (Passive Integrated Transponders) tags. Each tortoise must have a "tortoise data sheet" filled out upon capture. Information obtained from each tortoise and recorded on its sheet include: sex, carapace length, weight, date of capture, PIT tag number, notable markings or disfigurements and more. All of this work is possible in the field and takes less than 5 minutes.

Pit tags are injected in fatty tissue under the carapace near the rear passenger side of the tortoise. (if the tortoise were a VW bug) The tags are about the size of an uncooked grain of rice and the 12 gauge needles with syringe come preloaded and sterilized from the Biomark Company.

Bucket Trapp	Measuring	Weighing	Monitoring
PIT Tag & Injector	PIT Tag Location	Injecting	Data Sheet

To date nearly 400 gopher tortoise burrows have been identified and 116 adult and sub-adult (115mm-190mm carapace length) have been permanently identified.