Desert+Tortoise+2010

By: Ethan B.

The desert tortoise can grow up to ten to fourteen inches. Males are slightly bigger than females. Their lower shell is concave unlike female tortoises. When fully grown Desert tortoises can weigh eight to fifteen pounds and their shells are high domed and greenish tan and dark brown in color. The desert tortoise is able to live where the ground is over 140 degrees Farenheit. Most of its life is spent underground in burrows. In its burrows it is also safe from freezing winter weather when it is dormant. It is dormant from November through March. The desert tortoise is an herbivore which means they eat plants. Their diet consists of mainly grasses, herbs, wild flowers, and cacti. Most of its water intake comes from grasses and wild flowers they eat in the spring. Female tortoises can lay a clutch of 3 to 5 hard shelled eggs in June or July. The eggs can hatch in either August or September. Female wild tortoises can lay two or three clutches a year. The reason the desert tortoise in endangered is habitat loss, predators eating eggs, and diseases. For example Upper Respiratory Tract disease or U.R.T.D for short this disease makes it difficult for the tortoise to breathe. Another disease is Coetaneous Dyskeratosis this causes their shell to start to peel away making them an easy target for predators. I think that we should develop a cure for URTD and Coetaneous Dyskeratosis and inject the tortoises with it. Another act that we can put into effect is moving human populations away from the Desert Tortoise’s home.