Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A gopher tortoise at Lovers Key State Park. Some gopher tortoise burrows in Lehigh Acres were collapsed last week by heavy ...

But it’s not alone in there. More than 300 other animals, including rare and threatened animals like indigo snakes and gopher frogs, use gopher tortoise burrows and some of them live nowhere else.

Boasting more than 80 distinct ecosystems, Florida is a biodiversity hot spot. In fact, more than 4,000 animal species are native to the Sunshine State. In the heat of summer, a growing number of ...