Eighty-nine gopher tortoises were returned to the wild today at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center as part of a joint multi-agency effort to restore the population of this endangered species. It was the largest release of gopher tortoises back to the wild since the post's Head-Start program was created in 2014. A study in 2004 estimated that only 1,000 gopher tortoises remained on Camp Shelby. Another study determined that all monitored hatchlings from nests were dead within three years to predation and other factors.

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