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Desert tortoises slow to mature, but they eventually go a-courtin'
Apr. 22, 2008 12:00 AM

Today's question:

As I was driving to Prescott the other day and looking at how expansive the desert is, I got to thinking: How do desert tortoises find a mate? They travel at a snail's pace, make no noise and their view is limited to 4 inches above the ground.

First of all, desert tortoises do make noise. They make a number of hisses and grunts and pops and "poink" sounds. Nobody except the tortoises seem to know what the noises mean.

How do they find mates? I don't know. How does any creature find a mate?

First of all, desert tortoises aren't exactly sex machines. They spend about 95 percent of their time in burrows, including hibernating from around October to February or March. You have to figure that cuts down on their dating habits.

And they don't become sexually mature until they are 14 years old, sometimes as old as 20.

Desert tortoises do not defend individual territories, but they do have home ranges that can be from 10 acres to 140 acres depending on age, availability of food and so on. So as they wander around their home ranges, they are bound to meet another tortoise sooner or later.

Males fight over females, not territory. They try to tip each other over.

They will mate anytime they're above ground, but they are most active in the late summer and early fall.

When a male meets a female, he bobs his head around and nips at her front legs. If the female is in the mood, she stands still. If not, she keeps moving along.

Another thing is that females can store viable sperm inside their bodies for as long as four years. That means she doesn't have to mate frequently to still produce fertile eggs.

If you should happen to come across a desert tortoise while you're hiking, consider yourself lucky. It is estimated their numbers have declined 80 percent in the past few decades. And resist the temptation to take it home and put it in your backyard. They are a protected species.


Reach Thompson at clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8612.

For Immediate Release, May 9, 2008

Contact: Nada Culver, The Wilderness Society, (303) 650-5818, ext. 117
Peter Bungart, Archaeologist, (928) 213-0984
William Boarman, Conservation Science Research and Consulting, (619) 861-9450
Kim Crumbo, Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, (928) 638-2304
Kevin Gaither-Banchoff, Arizona Wilderness Coalition, (520) 326-4300
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 310-6713
 

National Monuments, Wildlife, and Archaeological Sites
Threatened by New Federal Plan for Northern Arizona

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.— A Bureau of Land Management plan issued yesterday for a remote area north of the Grand Canyon sacrifices wildlife habitat and archaeological sites to off-road vehicles, livestock grazing, and oil and gas development. The 20-year plan spans 2.8 million acres of the Arizona Strip, including the Grand Canyon Parashant and Vermillion Cliffs national monuments.

The 3,000-page plan ignores the very reason the national monuments were created and disregards the public’s desire for them to be protected, said Wilderness Society senior counsel Nada Culver. “Page after page, the BLM finds ways to promote continued off-road vehicle use in places that were set aside for their ancient artifacts, rugged landscapes, and habitat for desert species,” she said.

Despite a presidential proclamation ordering the Bureau to keep off-road vehicles to real “roads,” the plan allows them on more than 1,700 miles of trails and primitive roads in the monuments and across broad swaths of the Arizona Strip.

Only 27 percent of the lands in a wilderness proposal created by the Arizona Wilderness Coalition are protected under the plan, which also ignores the impacts of livestock grazing, fire regimes, and invasive species.

“Poll after poll shows that people love their wilderness lands,” said Kevin Gaither-Banchoff, executive director of the Arizona Wilderness Coalition. “It’s BLM’s responsibility as a public agency to protect what Arizona citizens want and deserve.”

Mountain lions and the deer and elk they feed on need large swaths of unbroken wildland to keep their populations healthy and viable, said Kim Crumbo of the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council.

“This plan does very little to ensure that the key species that rely on the monuments are protected from noise and widespread habitat fragmentation that off-road vehicle use causes on a large scale,” Crumbo said.

The plan also covers habitat for threatened, endangered, and sensitive species including the desert tortoise, southwestern willow flycatcher, bald eagle, Yuma clapper rail, relict leopard frog, woundfin minnow, and Virgin River chub.

Dr. William I. Boarman, a desert tortoise specialist who submitted comments to the agency, said the plan does very little to reduce the threats to the tortoise from motorized recreation, oil and gas development, and high-tension utility lines on which ravens perch and prey on the tortoises.

“In order for national monuments to offer sanctuary, their management must address factors threatening desert tortoise,” said Dr. Boarman. “I’m not convinced this plan does so.”

“The federal government has a duty under the Endangered Species Act to protect imperiled species and their habitat,” said Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity. “This plan falls short of that duty.”

The Arizona Strip is one of the last truly remote places in the West, and its monuments protect the region’s rich archaeology and historical sites, all of which are threatened by looting, vandalism, and unintentional damage by vehicles, said archaeologist Peter Bungart, director of Circa Cultural Consulting in Flagstaff.

“The BLM is trying to argue in this plan that keeping roads open will discourage looters from accessing sensitive sites. This is simply not a sensible approach,” he said. “The most significant and intact archaeological sites are found in remote places. Conversely, the most seriously damaged sites are near roads.”

Recreational use of the Arizona Strip will increase dramatically over the 20-year life of the plan. The population of the surrounding five counties is expected to double with the addition of 1.4 million new residents by 2020. Given the population explosion in the West and the monuments’ growing popularity, this 20-year management plan will determine the future of wildlife and other resources in the monuments.

May 10, 2008
Activists assail final Arizona Strip plan

PHOENIX — Environmental groups sharply criticized a final federal management plan Friday for millions of acres of rugged and remote public lands in northern Arizona's Arizona Strip.

Groups including the Wilderness Society and the Center for Biological Diversity said the plan allows too much off-road vehicle use, livestock grazing and oil and gas development on the 2.8 million acres of public lands.

The Arizona Strip stretches for miles north of the Grand Canyon National Park and includes the Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Canyon-Parashant national monuments.

There are no paved roads on either monument, but several graded gravel roads on the latter. "They mostly are primitive two-track roads that are very infrequently traveled," said Scott Florence, BLM district manager for the Arizona Strip.

Critics contended that the plan, which took effect Friday upon being published in the Federal Register, would not prevent habitat fragmentation for such key wildlife species found in the region as deer, elk and mountain lions.

It also would do little on behalf of the desert tortoise and other threatened, endangered and sensitive species, they said.

Wildlife habitat and archaeological sites will be sacrificed to oil and gas development, off-road vehicles and livestock grazing under the plan BLM issued, members of several environmental organizations said.

"Page after page, the BLM finds ways to promote continued off-road vehicle use in places that were set aside for their ancient artifacts, rugged landscapes, and habitat for desert species," said Nada Culver, Wilderness Society senior counsel.

The BLM's 3,000-page plan ignored why national monuments were created and disregards the wishes of the public to protect them, she said.

But federal officials defended the plan as the most practical, saying it allows people to use the land while protecting it. It has been debated for several years.

Florence said his agency was trying to be as proactive as possible and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a no-jeopardy biological opinion concerning the plan's impact on the desert tortoise.

"It isn't surprising that they would take that position because they did in their comments and protests on the final plan," he said.

"In developing the plans, we looked at the monument proclamations and feel that we developed plans that will adequately protect those monument objects while allowing for other uses out there.

"They seem to be focused a lot on the route designations, and in developing the plans we did close several hundred miles of routes to vehicle use."

Florence said a total of 290 miles of roads and trails on the two monuments would be closed under the plan, along with another 17 miles under National Park Service administration on the Grand Canyon-Parashant.

Nearly 1,650 more miles will remain open on the two monuments, along with more than 275 miles for administrative use only, he said.

Environmentalists fear the land will come under increasing pressure from thousands of tourists and off-highway vehicle enthusiasts in the next 20 years. The surrounding communities in Nevada and Utah are expected to grow by an estimated 1.4 million new residents in that time.

Find new home if you can't care for your tortoise
Our view: More slow-moving pets being abandoned due to foreclosure crisis
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 08.02.2008
advertisementIf you check out the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's "Tortoise Care and Husbandry" Web page, you'll learn that tending a captive desert tortoise is no simple job.
Feed one the wrong food ！ too much lettuce, say ！ and you may soon have a sick Gopherus (Xerobates) agassizii Cooper. Build a hibernation burrow that's too large and your small tortoise may have an uncomfortable, even dangerous, winter. The list is long.
Because captive tortoises cannot be mixed with wild ones, those who live in captivity require constancy from their human caretakers.
Here's just about the worst thing that can happen to a captive desert tortoise: Its human caretaker turns it loose.
Unfortunately that's exactly what's happening all around Arizona, according to the state Game and Fish Department, which says growing numbers of captive tortoises are being released in community parks.
Why? Game and Fish points to the state's growing foreclosure crisis: Human caretakers lose their homes, and so do their tortoises.
"We cannot stress enough how detrimental it is for both the captive and wild tortoises to let a captive tortoise go free in the wild," Cristina Jones, Game and Fish's turtles project coordinator, said in a news release on Thursday. "Captive desert tortoises can transmit diseases that harm wild populations, and captive tortoises aren't prepared to find food and water in an unfamiliar area and often die."
Our idea is that humans who take in animals ！ dogs, cats, hamsters, tortoises, whatever ！ must never drop the ball.
We have written in this space in the recent past that too many University of Arizona students acquire pets and later abandon them because they cost too much to care for, or make finding a rental too difficult ！ or they simply walk away when the school year ends.
The university plans to raise students' awareness about the responsibilities of owning a pet. It's partnering with the student chapter of FAIR, the Foundation for Animals In Risk, Pima Animal Care Center and the Humane Society to distribute pet-ownership materials during orientation and to give talks in dorms at the beginning and end of the school year.
Let us speak up now on behalf of the desert tortoise.
¢ If you see one in the desert ！ and they're especially active during monsoon season ！ leave it alone.
¢ If you see one at risk, say, lumbering slowly across a road, Game and Fish says you should pick it up carefully, keeping it level with the ground, and carry it to safety in the direction it was already going. A lost tortoise is at serious risk of starvation.
¢ If you have adopted a captive desert tortoise, you have brought into your life a creature who could live as long as 100 years, with proper care. You're responsible for providing that care. If for some reason you can no longer do so, you must make sure your tortoise is moved to another good home. Contact the Desert Museum's Tortoise Adoption Program at 883-3062.
Abandoning a captive tortoise in the wild or in a park is tantamount to murder. Don't do it.

The federal government wants your help to mull over strategies for recovering the threatened Mojave population of the desert tortoise by commenting on a draft version of the Revised Recovery Plan written by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A draft of the plan will be published Monday in the Federal Register, which opens a 90-day public comment period. A copy of the draft will be posted at fws.gov/nevada.

Habitat for the desert tortoise includes the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in Southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona and the southwestern tip of Utah, along with part of northern Mexico.

The main threat to the tortoise is due to human land uses, which create habitat loss and degradation by way of off-road vehicles and urbanization, livestock grazing, mining and military activities.

Desert tortoises becoming victims of foreclosures - Tucson Citizen

SCOTTSDALE - The desert tortoise gnawing on Daniel Marchand's shoelace has plenty of company at this reptile sanctuary.
The Phoenix Herpetological Society, where Marchand serves as curator, has taken in 25 tortoises in the past two weeks - the number it usually receives in six months. Most are turned over by people leaving foreclosed homes, he said.
"We're finding them abandoned, dumped or brought to us," Marchand said. "Or they call and say they're going to lose their house at the end of the month and have to get rid of their tortoise."
As Arizona reels from the housing slump, desert tortoises kept as pets are increasingly becoming victims as families either turn them over to shelters or release them. Experts say doing the latter can be a death sentence for pet tortoises, which often can't fend for themselves. The tortoises also can spread disease to wild populations.
Marchand said 80-90 percent of the tortoises his sanctuary receives are there because of home foreclosures.
"It forces people to downsize to condos with no backyards from houses with big backyards," he said.
It's illegal to remove tortoises from the desert, though that often happens. It's more common, and also legal, for people to adopt tortoises that are already kept as pets or the offspring of those tortoises, Marchand said.
"They're safe, docile and friendly," Marchand said. "They don't need to be coddled every day, and they'll come to you if you call."
Cristina Jones, coordinator of the state Game & Fish Department's Turtles Project, estimated that tens of thousands of desert tortoises are kept as pets around Arizona.
The Phoenix Herpetological Society finds homes for tortoises brought there, but some owners simply leave the reptiles in the desert or in neighborhood parks. The Arizona Game & Fish Department recently issued a warning that dumping or abandoning tortoises is a crime.
Jones said pet tortoises can transmit diseases to wild tortoises. Released tortoises often die because they are unfamiliar with the area and can't find food and water.
"It's important to know that it's illegal," said Cecil Schwalbe, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Sonoran Desert Research Station in Tucson. "The wildlife doesn't need another sick animal in the desert."
Russ Johnson, president of the Phoenix Herpetological Society, said tortoises in captivity can pick up ailments such as upper respiratory tract disease, which is suspected of wiping out whole regions of desert tortoises in California and Utah.
The Game & Fish Department has teamed up with Johnson's group to create a desert tortoise adoption program.
It costs $50 or less to adopt a tortoise, Johnson said, but the society will first confirm that those wishing to adopt have suitable living space.
"We don't want to just give them away; these are amazing creatures," Johnson said.

Desert tortoise numbers still declining
1 commentAug. 29, 2008 12:00 AM

SALT LAKE CITY - It's been 18 years since the federal government decided to protect the shy, slow-moving Mojave desert tortoise, and wildlife officials fear little has been accomplished.

"We know for a fact a lot of localized populations have suffered dramatic declines," said Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The long list of threats - urbanization, predators, wildfire, disease - isn't letting up. And that says nothing of the predicted shift toward higher temperatures and less precipitation that could jeopardize the tortoise's food supplies.
The agency is proposing to tweak its tortoise recovery plan, mainly by focusing on a more coordinated approach between dozens of state, federal and local agencies that control tortoise habitat.

But some environmentalists complain that the plan is too weak and too vague.