The Desert Tortoise can be found in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of southern California. The Desert Tortoise belongs to the Testudinidae family. It is also known as the gopher tortoise because it belongs to one of 4 species of the Gopherus genus.

    To get away from the heat of the summer and the cold winters, the desert tortoises live in burrows that they dig. They can be 3-6 feet deep. desert tortoises will spend November through February in their underground burrows.

    The desert tortoise will mate any time it is above ground. The females can store sperm and will lay 4-8 hard-shelled eggs in a nest dug near the burrow. the female will leave the nest, and the eggs are then incubated by the warm soil. After 20-90 days the eggs will hatch. Only a few out of every hundred of the 2-3 inch hatchlings will make it to adulthood. They are preyed by coyotes, roadrunners, Gila monsters, and ravens.

    The desert tortoise is considered a threatened species under the California state endangered Species Act.

Click above to return to North America