Desert Tortoises Abandon Their Eggs, So Why Did This One Fight Back?

Desert tortoises walk away from their eggs and never look back, leaving hatchlings to survive alone in one of the harshest ...

A judge is bankrupting a California town to save half a tortoise

These are our public lands. Protecting them should never require destroying the people who live on them, for a gesture that ...
Hosted on MSN

See a desert tortoise in the wild? Look, but don't touch, officials say

As monsoon rains bring much needed water to Arizona’s deserts, you may notice some of the state’s beloved shell-backed reptiles on the move. State wildlife officials have a message for those who may ...
Los Angeles Times

Good news for desert tortoises: Stretch of Mojave Desert gets federal protections

A 3.5-million-acre swath of Mojave Desert between Ridgecrest and the Morongo Basin has received a new federal designation that advocates hope will help protect vulnerable wildlife like the Mojave ...
WBUR

Stick your neck out and adopt a desert tortoise

What has four scaly legs and spends 90% of its life underground? It could be your new pet. The Arizona Game and Fish Department’s desert tortoise adoption program began last week with more than 300 ...
WTKR

Hundreds of desert tortoises in need of new homes

PHOENIX, Arizona — The Arizona Game and Fish Department says they have about 260 Sonoran desert tortoises looking for forever homes. “That’s a lot, it’s the most we’ve had at one time for sure,” said ...
Jalopnik

Off-Roaders Left With Just 3,800 Miles Of Trails After Judge Shuts Down 2,200 Miles To Preserve An Endangered Keystone Species

Environmental groups have been butting heads with local residents, off-roaders, and the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that manages nearly a third of the western Mojave Desert, since ...
Salon

California desert tortoises are hurtling toward extinction. Saving them won’t be easy

California’s Mojave Desert has become the backdrop of choice for many Instagram influencers who dig the aesthetics of Joshua trees and the otherworldly arid landscapes. Joshua Tree National Park now ...
Seattle Times

California’s Mojave desert tortoises move toward extinction. Why saving them is so hard

CALIFORNIA CITY, Calif. — Behind the fences surrounding this 40-square-mile outback of cactus and wiry creosote, the largest remaining population of Mojave desert tortoises was soaking up the morning ...

They brought in 500 tortoises to slow the Sahara’s advance in 2021: five years later, the success of the ‘system engineers’ arrived

A lack of moisture can turn desert soil into an environment almost devoid of plant life, but tortoises have proved an ...

500 tortoises turned the Saharan desert into something that looked alive even from outer space

A conservation story is giving people a rare dose of hope about the Sahara. Five hundred tortoises were released into a severely degraded part of the desert, and within five years, satellite imagery ...
Phys.org

California's Mojave desert tortoises move toward extinction. Why saving them is so hard

Behind the fences surrounding this 40-square-mile outback of cactus and wiry creosote, the largest remaining population of Mojave desert tortoises was soaking up the morning sun and grazing on a mix ...