Native to the north and west of the Colorado River in Arizona, Nevada and California, the Mojave desert tortoise is one of the world’s most endangered tortoises.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens have been working in partnership with Edwards Air Force Base, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the federal Geological Survey. Their goal: to increase the survival rate of young tortoises.
Lou Thomas from the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens Conservation Team emphasized the importance of protecting this species.
Lou Thomas: They’re an endangered species. There are multiple species of desert tortoise kind of in this southern region of the U.S., but these guys are what we find here in the Mojave Desert, and their numbers are just continuing and continuing to decrease.
Six months ago, a cohort of 70 juvenile Mojave desert tortoises were the first to be released back into their natural habitat. As of a few days ago, they successfully woke up from their winter brumation, a form of reptile hibernation.
While Living Desert takes care of these tortoises as eggs and hatchlings, there are some special considerations to make, said Thomas.
Thomas: Because these guys are going to go back out into the wild, we don’t want them to get too used to having food or water or an abundance of resources are not going to have once they’re released ... That way when they’re released or they go up to Edwards. They’re not already in that mindset of abundance where they think they have all these resources that they don’t have. So, we want to start them a little bit early on that. At the same time, we still do provide them with the water and we do give them more also food, because we want them to be grown really quickly.
Mojave desert tortoises have to deal with predators such as coyotes and ravens, but also with human impact. Invasive plants brought to the desert, damage to the ecosystem and climate change all harm the tortoise.
Thomas’s final takeaway for the public?
Thomas: I think being really cognizant of the impact you’re having. So, something like having trash or having water runoff is not something that you might initially associate with a decreasing tortoise population ... a healthier ecosystem just makes a healthier habitat for them.
The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens has resources for how to help the desert tortoise available online. They’re optimistic that, with programs like this one, the future will be bright for the tortoises.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Marie Louise Leone.