Basin wiki · Animals
Desert tortoise
Gopherus agassizii · Mojave desert tortoise
California’s state reptile, federally threatened, and mostly underground. A backyard pet is a legal and biological mistake.
Where you'll see it
Mojave desert tortoises use creosote flats and rocky bajadas in the park, Wonder Valley, Johnson Valley, and other diggable ground. The park says they spend about 95 percent of their time underground. Spring, when they feed and look for mates, is when people see one. A burrow under a creosote is often the only sign.
Legal status
The park’s account: listed as threatened by California in 1989 and by the federal government in 1990. Handling a wild tortoise is illegal under the Endangered Species Act. The exception the park describes is narrow: the animal is on or beside a road and about to be hit. Then use two hands, keep it a few inches off the ground, carry it about 50 feet farther in the direction it was already walking, and set it down gently, in shade if there is any. High handling makes a frightened tortoise empty its bladder, and that stored water can be the difference in a dry year.
Do not take it home
Removing a wild tortoise is illegal. Releasing a pet spreads upper respiratory disease, which the park ties partly to dumped captives, and a released pet usually cannot live where it was dropped. The park points adopters to visitor centers and the California Turtle and Tortoise Club. Check under a parked car before you drive; leave a tortoise in the shade of it alone unless it is in traffic.
What is hurting them here
The park names habitat loss, ravens that eat hatchlings, and disease. Ravens do well on roadkill, landfills, litter, and power poles. Mustard and new off-road tracks simplify the shrub cover juveniles use. Sightings can go on a wildlife card at a park visitor center. On private land, keep dogs off the burrow, keep vehicles on the pad, and call a permitted center rather than “rescuing” a healthy animal crossing the yard.