If a desert tortoise crosses your path and you don’t
mind your manners, you could face fines of up to $100,000 or one
year in jail. Due to urbanization and development, the animal,
listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, has lost an
extensive amount of its habitat in Arizona, California, Nevada and
southern Utah. The Bureau of Land Management has recently published
a brochure about the tortoise in an effort to educate the public
before the animal emerges from its winter burrows. Often, a curious
person will pick up a tortoise to get a closer look, says Doran
Sanchez of the BLM’s Riverside, Calif., office. But this scares the
animal, causing it to empty its bladder and possibly die from
dehydration. “Picking up a tortoise is against the law unless it’s
on a roadway and needs to be moved,” says Sanchez. Agency zoologist
Kristin Berry says that if it is absolutely necessary to pick up a
tortoise, “keep the shell level to the ground, don’t tip it or try
to look at the underside, and walk it 100 yards off the road, into
the direction it was headed.”
For a copy of the
brochure, Will the Desert Tortoise win the race … for survival?
contact the BLM California Desert District at 6221 Box Springs
Blvd., Riverside, CA 92507-0714 (800/446-6743).
* Rebecca Clarren
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Caution: Desert Tortoise Crossing.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
