The desert tortoise is among the most iconic species of the southwestern United States. While conducting surveys and compliance monitoring in the Mojave Desert, I've had the privilege to become familiar with the Agassiz’s desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), a species that inhabits regions north and west of the Colorado River in Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California.

Also known as the Mojave desert tortoise, it was listed as threatened in 1990 following significant population declines caused by habitat loss, disease, road mortality, and predation on eggs and hatchlings by species such as ravens, Gila monsters, and kit foxes.

Highly adapted to arid environments, these tortoises spend as much as nine months each year in brumation within underground burrows, emerging primarily in spring and fall to forage on grasses, cacti, and wildflowers. 

Desert tortoises are long-lived, with lifespans reaching up to 80 years, and may require as much as 20 years to reach sexual maturity, making population recovery particularly slow in the face of ongoing stressors.