Seventy percent habitat loss is staggering for a slow-growing, long-lived, slow-reproducing species. It is not an animal that bounces back easily. |
Twenty tortoises is a small population. These [20] tortoises would not protect the survival of gopher tortoises in Florida, but protecting them would preserve the species in Hillsborough County. |
We certainly aren't going to stop all habitat loss, that's a given. Habitat loss will continue as a result of urbanization in Florida. That is something my agency does not control. |