The Texas tortoise (''Gopherus berlandieri'') is a species of tortoise in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Testudinidae Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like ot ...

. The species ''G. berlandieri'' is one of six

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

s that are native to North America.

Geographic range

''G. berlandieri'' (Texas Tortoise) is found in the southern third of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

(roughly parallel to Houston) southward into the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

states of

Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...

, and

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

. Within its range, it inhabits semi-arid regions characterized by mesquite shrub and cactus dominated landscapes. Geographic_distribution_of_the_North_American_tortoises_of_the_genus_Gopherus

Geographic_distribution_of_the_North_American_tortoises_of_the_genus_Gopherus

Etymology

The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

, ''berlandieri'', is in honor of naturalist

Jean Louis Berlandier Jean-Louis Berlandier (1803 – 1851) was a French-Mexican naturalist, physician, and anthropologist. Early life Berlandier was born in Geneva, and later trained as a botanist there. During this time he probably served an apprenticeship to a pha ...

, who worked for the Mexican government on one of the first biological surveys of Texas.
/sup>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Berlandier's Tortoise ''Gopherus berlandieri'' ", p. 24). As such, some sources refer to it as Berlandier's tortoise.

Biology

The Texas tortoise, unlike other species of Gopherus, gopher tortoise, is not an adept burrower. It uses the thick vegetation for cover and

thermoregulation Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...

Succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

plants, a preferred food of the Texas tortoise, are common in these areas. It especially likes the

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

of cacti such as the prickly pear. The Texas Tortoise is oviparous. Female clutch sizes typically range anywhere from 1 to 5 eggs. The success of these clutches dramatically rely climatic conditions and habitat quality. A major ecological role Texas Tortoises play is in the dispersal of seeds throughout its range. By consuming fruit and excreting its seeds, the Texas Tortoise plays a pivotal role in the structure of the plant community that the tortoise inhabits. Study on this species

population genetics Population genetics is a subfield of genetics that deals with genetic differences within and among populations, and is a part of evolutionary biology. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as Adaptation (biology), adaptation, s ...

suggest limited gene flow and potential regional isolation. Population studies using mark-recapture methods have shown low dispersal rate and a somewhat limited

contiguous Contiguity or contiguous may refer to: *Contiguous data storage, in computer science *Contiguity (probability theory) *Contiguity (psychology) *Contiguous distribution of species, in biogeography *Geographic contiguity Geographic contiguity is t ...

home range. The Texas Tortoise is threatened by fragmentation, habitat loss, and illegal collection/trade.

Conservation status

Texas tortoises used to be very common, with densities of around 15–16 tortoises/ha, which were recorded in 1975. By 2001 the number of tortoises has drastically declined to an estimated 0.26 tortoises/ha and their distribution has become sporadic. The Texas tortoise is still considered an animal of low concern by the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

, where it has not been evaluated since 1996 though. It is listed as a

threatened species A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

in the state of Texas, and thus protected by state law. It is illegal to collect or possess them. The Mexican federal government lists ''Gopherus berlandieri'' as A (= Threatened) in Mexico. Likewise, using Environmental Vulnerability Scores, ''Gopherus berlandieri'' scored 18, a high vulnerability species on a scale of 0–20, in evaluations of both Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon herpetofauna.Nevárez-de los Reyes, M., D. Lazcano, E. García-Padilla, V. Mata-Silva, J. D. Johnson, and L. D. Wilson (2016). "The herpetofauna of Nuevo León, Mexico: composition, distribution, and conservation". ''Mesoamerican Herpetology'' 3: 558–638. In 2018, the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group recommended a re-assessment and re-classification of all six ''Gopherus'' species. This reclassification would move ''G. berlandieri'' from Near Endangered (NE) to Near Threatened (NT).

Gallery

File:Texas Tortoise - Gopherus berlandieri.jpg, Texas tortoise (''Gopherus berlandieri''), Val Verde Co, Texas, USA (2005). File:Texas Tortoise Beeville TX June 2011.jpg, ''Gopherus berlandieri'', Bee Co. Texas, USA (June 2011). File:Texas Tortoise (close-up) Beeville TX June 2011.jpg, ''Gopherus berlandieri'', Bee Co. Texas, USA (2011). File:Texas Tortoise Gular Scute Beeville TX June 2011.jpg, Elongated gular scutes of male, Bee Co. Texas, USA (2011). File:Gopherus berlandieri, Texas Tortoise, Tamaulipas.jpg, Texas tortoise (''Gopherus berlandieri''), northern

, Mexico (2007). File:2023 05 27 - Texas tortoise.jpg, Texas tortoise (''Gopherus berlandieri''), Bee Co. Texas, USA (2023).

References

External links

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Texas tortoiseTexas tortoise care sheet
{{Authority control Gopherus Tortoise, Texas Tortoise, Texas Tortoise, Texas Reptiles described in 1857