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Desert Tortoise
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- Order: Testudines (turtles and tortoises)
- Family: Testudinidae (tortoises)
- Genus: Gopherus (gopher tortoises)
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Scientific Name: Gopherus
agassizii (Cooper, 1863) |
| Habitat: Sandy and
gravelly areas, dry washes, arroyos. |
Gopherus="gopher," agassizii
in honor of zoologist Jean Louis R. Agassiz
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| Length: Carapace to 14.5
inches. |
Also Known As:
Xerobates agassizii |
| Food:
Herbivorous--grasses, cactus pads, flowers, etc. |
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| This tortoise had just crossed
the road in Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, 10:30 a.m. PDT.
That's why we have such low speed limits in our parks! If a car
had happened to come around the curve a little too fast and hadn't
seen the tortoise, it would have been killed. The desert tortoise
is an endangered species. Please do not remove them from their
natural habitat. Their needs are very specific and cannot easily
be replicated in captivity. |
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| Desert tortoises dig long
burrows in which they spend the night. In the morning, the emerge
and warm up, then forage for food. The hot midday sun is avoided
in the shade or in burrows, and activity resumes in the late
afternoon and evening. Males are known for their lengthy duels, in
which the loser is often overturned and could possibly die if he
can't right himself before he succumbs to the desert heat. |
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