KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A gopher tortoise searches for food at the edge of a road near Launch Pad 39A. Their primary food sources are low-growing grasses and herbs, with their favorite foods being gopher apple and saw palmetto berries. They will eat the pads, fruits, and flowers of prickly pear cactus as well. They will occasionally also eat bones from dead animals, presumably to get calcium. The gopher tortoise is a cold-blooded reptile that averages 10 inches in length and 9 pounds in weight. Wild tortoises may live from 40 - 60 years, while tortoises in captivity can live more than 100 years. Their range extends from southeastern Louisiana to southeastern South Carolina and throughout all 67 counties in Florida. The gopher tortoise is federally protected as a threatened species except in Florida, where it is listed as a Species of Special Concern by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Lands surrounding the Kennedy Space Center are part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Approximately one half of the Refuge's 140,000 acres consists of brackish estuaries and marshes. The remaining lands consist of coastal dunes, scrub oaks, pine forests and flatwoods, and palm and oak hammocks. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley KSC-07pd1855
