While hiking out here, I heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. Whatever creature was making those sounds was too slow moving to be anthing other than a Gopher Tortoise. When I looked I saw indeed it was. This container was once at Highlands Hammock where it was very popular and found by many geocachers. I didn't have the heart to take appart the container and sand off the paint job. I'm glad I didn't either, because once I saw that gopher tortoise I knew this would be the perfect location for the Go For It Geocache!
The Gopher Tortoise is an herbivore that can be seen wherever fresh green vegetation is available for munching. With elephant like hind feet and front legs designed to dig, this ancient species is one of the most important residents in the park. It digs burrows that go as deep as the groundwater table with a huge sandy entrance mound. Gopher tortoises have many burrows and each one can be a virtual condominium, a hiding place from predators and a fire refuge for all sorts of other creatures who are smaller, skinnier or longer than the tortoise. Three dozen species use the burrows of gopher tortoises. The gopher frog, gopher cricket, Florida mouse and indigo snake are threatened and endangered species that depend on the burrows. Birds fly into the burrows to hide from hawks and several blind beetles and flies are adapted to life in the dark corridors. Salamanders, lizards, frogs, snakes, skunks, rabbits and opossums share these burrows with their builders. North America’s largest tick species has a long standing relationship with this ancient symbiotic species.
This geocache is placed in Alafia River State Park with the permission of park management (Coy Helms).
Alafia River State Park is open from 8:00AM until sundown, 365 days a year. The admission fees are as follows: $5.00 per vehicle. Limit 2-8 people per vehicle. $4.00 Single Occupant Vehicle. $2.00 Pedestrians, bicyclists, extra passengers, passengers in vehicle with holder of Annual Individual Entrance Pass. Camping is available in the park as well.