The Mojave desert tortoise is found in the United States’ Mojave Desert, as well as in other dry habitats in the southwestern United States. Wild desert tortoises in the Mojave Desert are protected under the Endangered Species Act and state law. If you find a trapped wild tortoise, please contact the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at Wildlife Incident Report or contact the Non-Game Wildlife Program. The desert tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, is found in southwestern Arizona, southeastern California and southern Nevada as well as in adjacent areas of Mexico. However, if you find a wild tortoise on a busy road through the desert, you may help it across the road. Crawford is the adoption chair of Foothill Chapter of the California Turtle and Tortoise Club. They may wander in and out of unfenced yards and along streets on the edge of the desert. It might also be an escaped pet tortoise. The desert tortoise is found primarily in the Sonoran Desert and Mojave Desert. Tortoise Lifestyles Desert tortoises live in desert valleys between about 1,000 and 4,000 feet in elevation. We maintain hundreds of adult tortoises here in Las Vegas, and produce them in our local facilities. Club members of … The desert tortoise species are native inhabitants of several southwestern ecosystems, including the Sonoran, Colorado, and Mojave Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and tropical deciduous forests and thornscrub in northwestern Mexico. The desert tortoise is widely spread across the Mojave desert and Sonoran desert of the southwestern US and the northwestern part of Mexico, especially the Sinaloan thornscrub, western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada and southwestern Utah. This rare reptile is seldom seen due to its burrowing lifestyle and the fact that it hibernates for up to nine months of the year. About Desert Tortoises. Information on the shelter, adoption, care sheets and articles. Some of the oldest living vertebrates on our planet, the turtle family has remained largely unchanged for millions of years Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Adopting and caring for desert tortoises. These animals are referred to the Department of Herpetology. Tortoises found on the fringes of residential areas in desert towns are very likely to be wild tortoises. Wild desert tortoise populations in their native Mojave and Sonoran deserts have been declining—largely the result of human encroachment on their habitat, according to the U.S. Your local branch of the Bureau of Land Management may also be able to handle the situation. The TAP exclusively addresses the Desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) in the Tucson area (within the natural distribution of tortoises). If you live within the known desert tortoise range and find a tortoise, it is best to leave it alone unless it is in imminent danger. The Desert Tortoise Recovery Office (DTRO),based at the U.S. Tortoises probably do not get lonely, they tend to be solitary reptiles. This rare reptile is seldom seen due to its burrowing lifestyle and the fact that it hibernates for up to nine months of the year. However, if you find a captive tortoise, which commonly occurs in Tucson (including densely populated areas), it is best to try to find the tortoise's owner.