September 2, 2007
Desert Tortoise
We came home on Saturday from a week-long trip to Mexico to find a visitor waiting by our front door. This is a Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), one of the rarer sights here in the Sonoran desert. It has been more than a decade since the last one I spotted, an even larger (and older) tortoise that ambled into my yard one day to munch on wildflowers.
This one was after some bird seed on our front porch. He (I think it was a male, but it's not easy to tell) ignored me while I took a few photos, then wandered back into the weeds to eat some little wild berries that spring up here after the summer rains.
Tortoises can live into their 80's, but they are a vulnerable species. Only a handful out of every hundred hatchling tortoises makes it to adulthood, and as their habitat is disturbed more and more by development, their numbers decline.
Notice the growth ridges on the shell, which continues to expand as the tortoise grows. They live a large part of their lives underground in burrows dug with their powerful legs and sharp claws. They exit during the monsoons to find as much water as possible, which they store up and live on during the rest of the year.
It was encouraging to see this little guy. It gave me hope that the desert creatures are finding ways to cope with my intrusion into their habitat.
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| Desert Tortoise (gopherus agassizii) |
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| Desert Tortoise shell detail |
Posted to Photography
That is so cool! I get excited when I see a lizard or a roadrunner, but theyre' nothing compared to a tortoise. (How come the genus name is "Gopherus"? Shouldn't that be for gophers?)
Posted by: SkyePuppy at September 2, 2007 11:20 PMYes, Skye, cool indeed. Here's something I found on "gopherus":
"Gopherus - French - gaufre - small burrowing animal -- probably refering to its burrowing habits"
One author says the desert tortoise spends 95% of its time underground, either to escape the heat in summer or the cold in winter -- hence, it burrows.
Very COOL!! I had a flock of 20 wild turkeys in my yard this morning, but they're not rare at all. (= What a cool opportunity to "meet" a creature that's so rarely seen.
Posted by: Marie at September 3, 2007 9:13 AMWell, I was going to say, "Cool!", but I see everybody else has too...oh well, I'll just be unoriginal and say it...Cool!
Posted by: Bonnie at September 3, 2007 5:32 PMWow. thats beautiful. I loved visiting there, the wildlife is so diverse and different than the east coast. very cool.
Posted by: Andrew at September 4, 2007 6:40 AMCharlie,
That is so cool! One thing I don't get a perspective of from the photos is the tortoise's size. How big was this one?
Scott
Good to hear from you, Scott. I'd guess his shell was about 8 inches from front to back, and maybe 4 inches high as he walked. I picked him up to move him a short distance and he was big enough that my thumbs and index fingers didn't touch as I grasped him around the middle.
it is ulgy
Posted by: angela at April 9, 2008 9:58 AMThese photos r cool. I also have 2 tortoise.
Posted by: nikhil.bhandari at May 31, 2008 9:35 PM