Written by staff member, Vicky
The Gopher Tortoise. Gopherus polyphemus.
But for Haligonians, we call him Gopher Gus the Lettuce King ♛. Or just Gus, for short.
Native to southern South Carolina, southern Georgia, and Florida, the Gopher Tortoise is the only native tortoise species east of the Mississippi River, and it is one of the oldest living species on the planet!
But wait... if he's from the southern United States, how did Gus end up living in Halifax?
Welllllllllllllllllllll...
Leave the Gator Wrestling to the Professionals
Ross Allen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1908, but spent his formative years in Ohio. At age 16, he and his family moved to Winter Haven, Florida, in hopes of making some extra money during a boom in the real estate market. Ross loved Florida immediately. The local plants and wildlife reeled him in, and before long, he was handling snakes, catching creatures, and wrestling alligators. While in Florida, Ross showed off his swimming skills by becoming a lifeguard. He demonstrated his outdoor know-how by earning the rank of Eagle Scout, and he proved that dropping out of university can't hold a good man down when he left John B. Stetson University (now Stetson University) after one semester.
After a few years, it became clear that the family plan to make a fortune in Florida was not going as they'd hoped. Ross's parents made the decision to move back to Ohio, but Ross couldn't stay away from the Sunshine State. Within a few weeks of being in Ohio, Ross left his parents and went back to Winter Haven where he began a business in animal taxidermy and reptile research. After an incident involving some escaped alligators, Ross moved to Silver Springs, Florida in 1929 and opened his dream business: the Ross Allen Reptile Institute (RARI).
By the 1930s, the RARI had gone from a taxidermy and pet shop to a thriving tourist attraction (if you want to see a promotional video for the RARI from the 1960s, visit the Library of Congress). There was a log cabin that was used as an office space and a gift shop (which included selling animals), there were pens for large reptiles, pits for snakes, and display cases to exhibit smaller creatures. Ross also conducted demonstrations for visitors. For example, he would frequently "milk" - or drain the venom from - a poisonous snake for the crowd. Ross then sold this venom to laboratories to create anti-venom for snake bites.
Ross particularly favoured rattlesnakes, if you can call it favouritism. Not only did he milk the snakes for their venom, he would also sell them as food products and souvenirs. Ross would sell the preserved skin and rattles of the snake in the RARI gift shop, and then process the meat in a cannery he purchased in the early 1940s. The cannery also made alligator soup.
The RARI also included a Seminole Village built by Ross in 1935. The Seminole were the first people to live in Florida, and Ross hired tribe members to live in the village he constructed as an additional tourist attraction. Dave Scheidecker of the Seminole Tribal Historic Preservation Office says that "Tribal members would cycle in... There was a general shrugging bewilderment that people would pay just to watch them live, but it was also stressful, and some likened it to living in a fishbowl" (Pittman). Despite its popularity, the village was debatably authentic. For example, when visitors complained there were no totem poles on site, some were put up in the village. Totem poles were not a part of the Seminole culture; they were added because it was what visitors wanted/expected to see, not because they were an accurate representation of the tribe.
Although some of Ross's business practices and his methods for collecting his animals caused some controversy, that didn't stop visitors from across the United States and Canada from flocking to the RARI.
In fact, the tourist hotspot attracted a Halifax local: Donald Crowdis.
A Long Way From Home
Donald (Don) Kennedy Crowdis was born on December 24, 1913, in Halifax. His father, Charles, worked as a minister while his mother, Jean (née Kennedy), a housewife and later teacher, managed the Crowdis home at 565 Gottingen Street. Don had one older sister, Lois Jean (who went by Jean; born 1912) and one younger sister, Helen Gertrude (born 1918).
In December 1917, while walking on Kenny Street, Charles saw the fire blazing on the doomed ship, the Mont Blanc. Moments later, the Halifax Explosion occurred, and Charles was knocked backward and hit his head on the ground. Dizzy and bruised, he got to his feet - debris, smoke, and destruction all around him - and ran for home. When he arrived at 565 Gottingen Street, the Crowdis house was flattened with his wife Jean and her two sisters trapped inside. Luckily, Don, who was only four, and his sister Jean were in the street. When asked how they escaped the house, five-year-old Jean stated: "I jumped through a window and Donnie jumped after me" (Personal Narrative, Re. J. Crowdis, pg 3). In an interview decades later, Don stated: "As the Explosion went up air rushed in to fill the space, and so the house collapsed toward the Explosion and the end walls had to go somewhere so they went sideways, and myself and sister - a year and a half older - rode out on those walls as they landed in the vacant lot next door." (Donald Crowdis, Nova Scotia's Science Hall of Fame). Eventually, Charles was able to dig his wife and his sisters-in-law from the rubble. His wife suffered many injuries - deep cuts, a broken arm, and she even lost an eye - but the children were relatively unharmed. Charles placed his wife and Don into a wheelbarrow, and then he and young Jean walked to a hospital.
Miraculously, Don, his parents, his sister, and his aunts all survived the Explosion. In the aftermath, the Crowdis' moved to 15 Beech Street (now 1747/1749 Beech Street). They were provided furniture and other household items through the Relief Commission, and in time, they were able to get back on their feet.
In his young adulthood, Don attended Dalhousie University and graduated with degrees in Arts & Science and Education. He later continued his studies in New York, where he attended Columbia University to study Education Administration. While in the United States, he was granted a Carnegie Foundation Fellowship for Museum Studies at the Buffalo Museum of Science. Upon returning to Nova Scotia, he began his work career as a teacher in a one-room school before becoming Vice-Principal at Sir Charles Tupper Elementary School in Halifax's South End. However, his public teaching career was short-lived. Around 1940, Don was hired as the curator of the Provincial Museum of Nova Scotia (PMNS).
The PMNS was founded in 1868, having somewhat humble beginnings in a single room in the Post Office Building at the corner of George Street and Bedford Row. Over time - and with the help of dedicated curators like Rev. David Honeyman, Isabella Goudge, Emma Power, and Harry Piers - the PMNS outgrew its Post Office location and by the 1940s had a home within the walls of the Nova Scotia Technical College at 6 Spring Garden Road. The Technical College Building is now home to the Architecture Department of Dalhousie University's Sexton Campus. In its early years, PMNS focused on exhibits that demonstrated Nova Scotia's natural resources, but later, particularly under the guidance of Harry Piers, the Museum's collection also began to focus on cultural preservation. When Don stepped into the role of curator, the PMNS had some 38,000 items in their collection that featured natural specimens (rocks, minerals, metals, plants, and animals), anthropologic artifacts, industrial and commercial relics, naval architecture, pieces of art, and other general history items.
In 1942, Don took a fateful trip. While travelling through Florida, he made a stop at the Ross Allen Reptile Institute. As always, Ross had a number of reptiles for sale at RARI that day, and for the low, low price of five dollars (or about $93 today), Don purchased an indigo snake, an alligator, and our good friend Gus to bring home to the PMNS. Gus is believed to have been about twenty years old when he was purchased.
You might ask yourself Why? Why did Don buy these reptiles? Well, Heather McKinnon Ramshaw, the current Animal Care Co-Ordinator for the current Museum of Natural History, says: "At the time, a lot of people didn't travel, and the Museum of Natural History was to show people the world, so part of it was to bring interesting things here so people could see and get a sense of what the world was like. So, I think that's why Don Crowdis purchased Gus so people could meet an actual tortoise" (Gus 101, Museum of Natural History). And so, with special thanks to the lax animal importation laws of the time, the indigo snake, the alligator, and Gus crossed the border into Canada with Don and made Halifax their new home.
Gopher Tortoise Facts
Gus is sometimes mistakenly called a turtle instead of a tortoise. What's the difference, you ask? Well, the main difference is that turtles are aquatic. Gus and his extended tortoise relatives do not. Gopher tortoises prefer sandy ground like dunes and dry prairies. This is partly because these habitats have a lot of sun, which gopher tortoises love, but also because gopher tortoises really like to dig! The sandy soil is the perfect environment for a tortoise to get their claws dirty. However, they also require nearby vegetation. After all, a tortoise gotta eat! Gopher tortoises are herbivores and typically feed on native plants like grass, apples, and legumes.
Gopher tortoises are usually 16 - 18 centimetres in length when they're fully grown, and weigh somewhere between five and six kilograms. They have very short back feet, and their front feet are very flat, almost like little shovels (so they can dig DIG dig). Newly hatched gopher tortoises have a yellowish colour, but as they reach adulthood, they turn to more muted colours like tan, brown, or grey. In the wild, gopher tortoises can live between 40 and 60 years, but in captivity, they can easily live to be more than 90.
Breeding season for gopher tortoises is from March to October. Females lay a clutch of five to nine eggs a year. The eggs, which are about the size of a ping-pong ball, take between 80 - 110 days to hatch. Once they're hatched, the kids are on their own! The gopher tortoise parents have other things to do.
In the wild, gopher tortoises live in burrows dug into the sandy ground. These burrows are typically 15 feet long and around six and a half feet deep. Tortoises are cold-blooded, so where they dig their burrows is extremely important as their home helps regulate their body temperature.
Over time, gopher tortoises have lost a lot of their natural habitat to urban development and poor land management. Florida has listed them as a threatened species and has made a plan to increase and improve their habitats, restore the population, and help minimize gopher tortoise deaths. Unless you have a permit, you are not allowed to handle or relocate a gopher tortoise. The exception to this rule is if a gopher tortoise is in danger, say, in the middle of a road. You are permitted to move the tortoise to its destination on the other side of the road if it is safe for you to do so. Why did the tortoise cross the road, you ask? To get to the Shell station! (hahahahaha! You're welcome!)
Becoming Hali-famous
When Gus first took residence in Halifax, he had no name. He was simply the resident tortoise. At that time, he was given free rein of the PMNS: "...he was a great friend to us all," said a former employee. "He used to walk around the halls, in between the library stacks. Wherever you went, you were apt to fall over Gus" (1980s story on Gus the Turtle, CBC News, YouTube). Apt to fall over him until he went missing, that is!
The disappearing act was not an irregular one for Gus. He would occasionally slip out the museum door during his daily walk and stroll right onto Spring Garden Road. However, kind neighbours always found Gus and brought him back home. That is, until the early 1950s, when Gus fully disappeared. "Suddenly people became aware of the fact that they hadn't seen him for a while," said an unidentified man in a 1980s CBC interview. Many believed that this time Gus did not just wander off, but was tortoise-napped! Sources vary on how long he was missing, but some indicate it was almost two years! And then, one day, he appeared. Later news reports stated that he was returned in a brown paper bag (Daily News, March 17, 1987, pg.15). Regardless of where he went, everyone was relieved when he was brought back home.
Gus was formally named in 1952. John A. Gilhen, an eleven-year-old volunteer at the museum, had made quick friends with the tortoise. It is said that when he was hungry, Gus would tap John on the shoe until he was given a snack. One day, another young volunteer and one of John's friends was making fun of John's middle name, Augustus. He called him Gus over and over until a museum staff member, thinking they had been calling John by the wrong name, asked for clarification. John supposedly said My name is John, but you can call him (the tortoise) Gus. (Gus 101, Museum of Natural History). The name stuck, and it has been Gopher Gus ever since.
By the 1960s, local newspapers were declaring Gus "an Institution" at the museum. He had become the unofficial mascot who was much beloved by visitors and staff. On November 23, 1970, the PMNS opened a new facility on Summer Street where Gus was given a new home and a proper enclosure. This meant that the tortoise had a lot less wandering about unsupervised, but a lot more adventures walking around the facility and in the fenced backyard with staff.
In 1980, the PMNS decided to give Gus the acknowledgement he deserved and threw him his first birthday party. Although there's no way of knowing exactly when Gus was hatched, it is believed that he came into the world sometime around 1922, and so Gus' first birthday was actually his 58th. The museum was decorated with signs stating Gus facts; there was cake, and Gus even got a party hat. The event was a hit! Children, parents, former museum employees, and other visitors filled the museum to celebrate Gus. Children made him birthday cards, sang "Happy Birthday," fed him some of his favourite snacks, and even helped blow out the candles on his cake. The birthday party quickly became an annual tradition.
On August 10, 2025, Gus will celebrate his 103rd birthday. At this age, it is believed he is the oldest gopher tortoise in the world!
Gus has become such a beloved Halifax icon that he's even made it into popular fiction. Author Erin Arsenault, inspired by her memories of Gus and his well-known disappearing acts, wrote the children's book Gus the Tortoise Takes a Walk. In the short story, Gus visits the nearby Bengal Lancer horses, is startled by the noon-time gun from Citadel Hill, and is bothered by pigeons until he's eventually able to take a rest in the Public Gardens. The book is illustrated by award-winning artist Richard Rudnicki.
In addition to his literary accomplishments, Gus has been nominated for one of Nova Scotia's most prestigious awards: The Order of Nova Scotia. In 2018, the newspaper The Coast stated:
Gus, the Museum of Natural History's gopher tortoise, is an icon unparalleled in this city. He is a living conductor of wilderness awareness - a multi-generational ambassador of conservation who has stirred the imaginations of millions over the past three-quarters of a century. Beyond that, Gus holds a special place in this city's heart. He is the bedrock foundation of Halifax's identity. Generations have grown up looking down into that expressionless gaze. Our faces age. His stays carved. For all these reasons, and more, we are nominating Gus the tortoise for the Order of Nova Scotia.
Jacob Boon, Citizen Gus, March 8, 2018
The nomination papers were submitted with letters of support from the wilderness coordinator for the Ecology Action Centre, Raymond Plourde, former Gus caretaker Scott Pelton, HRM deputy mayor Waye Mason, and former Member of Parliament Megan Leslie. Tragically, Gus did not win the award, but it was no doubt an honour for him just to be nominated.
Getting to Know Gus
- Gus' favourite foods: Bananas, dandelions, apples, blackberries, and broccoli! (The best food for him is leafy greens.)
- Gus' least favourite food: Swiss chard!
- Gus' least favourite season: Nova Scotia Winter! (He's not allowed to go outside because the cold and snow aren't good for him.)
- Gus' favourite activity: Digging! (Every summer, he digs a burrow in the museum's backyard.)
- Gus' least favourite activity: Bath Time!
- Gus' favourite colour: Yellow! (Based on how much he loves dandelions.)
- Gus' weight: 4.5kg
- Gus' shell: 33 X 33cm
- Gus' speed: .2 - .5km per hour
- Gus' shell: 13 large scutes (hard scales) on the top, and several smaller scutes around the outside edge
The Finishing Lines
On March 17, 1987, the Daily News interviewed then-museum worker Debra Burleson: "Gus is more of a museum pet than an exhibit," she said. (pg.15). Without realizing it, Debra spoke for us all.
Gus is a part of all of our lives. He is our collective pet, our mascot, our special little guy.
Library Sources
Vertical Files:
- Reptiles: Gus: Gus Walks into Writer's Heart Halifax Chronicle Herald, The Nova Scotian, August 19, 2012, pg. 11/12
- Reptiles: Gus: Gopher Gus Now An Institution at the Nova Scotia Museum, The Halifax Mail Star, August 3, 1963, pg. unknown
- Reptiles: Gus: Happy Birthday Gus! The Daily News, Inside Today, March 17, 1987. pg. 15
- N.S. Museum: The new Nova Scotia Museum: $1,500,000 complex open to public Nov. 23, Halifax Mail Star, October 23, 1970, pg. 7-10
Additional Sources
1980s Story on Gus the Turtle will have you in stitches, CBC (Special thanks to Reb for sharing this with me, and inspiring this post!)
The Cause of the Catastrophe, O Socials
Citizen Gus, Jacob Boon, The Coast
Crowdis, Donald Nova Scotia Historical Biographies, New Scotland 1398
Donald Crowdis - Nova Scotia's Science Hall of Fame 2008, Discovery Centre Halifax, YouTube
Donald Crowdis, Obituary, Legacy
Donald Kennedy Crowdis, Nova Scotia Archives
Events, Museum of Natural History
Gopher Tortoise, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Gopher Tortoise, The Nature Conservancy
Gus 101, Museum of Natural History, YouTube
Gus 101 Weekend, Museum of Natural History
Gus, Museum of Natural History
Harry Piers: Museum Maker, Nova Scotia Archives
How a $5 Roadside Tortoise Turned into a Halifax Icon, Aly Thomson, CBC
Inflation Calculator, Bank of Canada
May 22, 1931 - Arcadia company starts selling canned rattlesnake, Florida History Network
Museum of Natural History, Nova Scotia, Instagram, December 10, 2024
Photo of Lois Jean "Jean" and Don Crowdis on Gottingen Street, cropped, 1916, Orr Family Photographs and History 1888-1953, Halifax Municipal Archives, CR99
Remembering Ross Allen by Scott Mittchel, OCALALifestyle
Ross Allen: Florida's Own Reptile Wrangler by Craig Pittman, Flamingo
Ross Allen Reptile Institute, video, 1960, Library of Congress
Sunday Favorites: Ross Allen's Reptile Island Closes for Good, The Bradenton Times
Tortoise with eggs, Natural Habitat Adventures, World Wildlife Federation
The Woman Behind the Tortoise, Haylea Dilnot-Reid, The Signal
This is a small vintage Ross Allen Diamondback rattlesnake meat tin can, Antique Mystique
World's Oldest Gopher Tortoise Turns 85 on June 10, Government of Nova Scotia
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