Abstract

-We classified burrows of a population of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) as active, inactive or abandoned according to the physical characteristics of the entrances. We excavated 1019 burrows (454 active, 449 inactive and 116 abandoned) to determine if either tortoises (males, females and juveniles) or symbionts differentially used these three burrow categories. We captured 400 tortoises in burrows. We classified all burrows immediately prior to excavation. Tortoises were captured significantly more often in active than in either inactive or abandoned burrows. Juveniles were captured significantly more often than adults in inactive burrows only. Numerically, 53% of the symbiont individuals were reptiles, 36% were amphibians and 11% were mammals. The number of reptilian species was greater than that of both amphibians and mammals. Mammalian individuals were significantly under-represented in our sample relative to reptiles and amphibians. When all vertebrate symbionts were combined, we could detect no difference in use of the three burrow categories. Reptiles, however, were found significantly more often in active burrows. When snakes and lizards were analyzed separately, only lizards were found significantly more often in active burrows; snakes were randomly distributed in burrow categories. We present several hypotheses to account for these observed distributions.

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