For the fun of it ...

St. Johns County Sheriff's Office
Like This Page · June 21 ·

IMPEDING TRAFFIC INCIDENT:
While on routine patrol along Nocatee Parkway, Deputy L. Fontenot conducted a traffic stop on a "Florida Native" for Impeding Traffic flow. At the time of the stop, the suspect identified as "Gopherus Genus" (exact age unknown), failed to clear the roadway when ordered to do so, opting to continue his current activity of walking along the parkway. The deputy quickly detained Gopherus and after a heartfelt conversation regarding this risky behavior was “released on his own recognizance” in some nearby woods. Deputy Fontenot stated, "Gopherus was cooperative during the remainder of my encounter with him, so I chose to use discretion and let him go with a warning. In fact, our interaction was so positive, we posed for a selfie together!"

Found through the German Magazine 'Der Spiegel', whose editors apparently also needed a funny news break for a change.

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Bye

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gulfgal98's picture

gopher tortoises are a threatened species and are protected under state law. They live a long time and dig huge burrows. I am glad to see that this state trooper removed this gopher tortoise from harm's way.

On a personal note, we actually had a gopher tortoise set up home in our yard in Tallahassee many years ago..He dug a burrow in our vegetable garden and lived there for about six months until he decided to move on, probably looking for a mate. He grew to recognize my husband and would come out of his burrow and allow my husband to hand feed him lettuce from the garden. I was sad when he decided to move on and it was about this time of year that he left.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

@gulfgal98
in Hawaii, but never those big ones. To have one in your garden is a special treat, indeed.
Thanks also for the information about those specific turtles in Florida.

I think most German readers were just amused about the way the little news note was formulated.

I definitely would love to see alligators and turtles in real time in the wilderness.

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gulfgal98's picture

@mimi gopher tortoises are not the same as turtles. Turtles spend some or much of their time in water, whereas tortoises live on dry land. Gopher tortoises are dry land creatures.

I want to thank you for publishing this story simply to educate people about this threatened species.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

mimi's picture

@gulfgal98
... and thanking your for it.

And I now remember that the turtles I saw were all in the water. And sometimes I get confused if what I remember is from real life memories or from memeories of what I have seen here in the German TV landscape through excellent nature documentaries.

What was your tortoise in your garden, was our hedgehog in ours. Unfortunately the nest they had directly near a little patio wall in front of my sister's bedroom, isn't there anymore and we regret that every day and hope the hedgehogs will come back. It's our family's mascot animal since I was a child.

Hedgehog in the garden.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@mimi

I definitely would love to see alligators and turtles in real time in the wilderness.

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mimi's picture

@Alligator Ed
your ears are located... you are such a tricky animal, sigh... Wink

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Nice to see you, Mimi. Hope all is well with you. Best to your son.

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mimi's picture

@OPOL
you and your son as well.

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