Desert Tortoise

1 Overview

The Desert Tortoise, also called the desert gopher tortoise or desert land tortoise, is a tough land tortoise living in remote parts of the United States. It is fairly large and demanding about food, so keeping it elsewhere is difficult. Its appearance is not showy and its carapace markings are faint.

Chinese Name: Desert Tortoise

Chinese Alias: Desert gopher tortoise, desert land tortoise

English Name: Desert Tortoise

Binomial: Gopherus agassizii (source spelled it ‘aggassizii’)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Testudines

Family: Testudinidae

Genus: Gopherus

Species: Gopherus agassizii

Distribution: Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It inhabits dry environments with cacti and spiny plants and digs burrows up to 10 m long as shelter. Herbivorous, eating local grasses, flowers, cacti, and legumes; it rarely eats non-native plants. The courtship season peaks in early autumn (about May–July); clutch size 4–8 eggs; incubation 90–120 days, with males emerging at 26–30.5°C and females at 31–32°C. It spends about 95% of its life in burrows, and from November to March, when temperatures drop below 0°C, it hibernates underground.

2 Physical Characteristics

A slow-moving, large terrestrial tortoise, body length 23–38 cm, maximum carapace length about 37 cm. It has a single axillary scute, and among the vertebral scutes the fifth is widest. Terrestrial, with a domed carapace; the hind legs are short and stout, the front limbs densely scaled and flattened for digging, and all toes are unwebbed. The carapace is oval, brown, somewhat keratinous, with the center of each scute slightly yellowish.

3 Husbandry

Few keep this tortoise and detailed experience is limited; most learn by extrapolating from other tortoises. On intake, deworming and quarantine are mandatory steps.

For wild-caught tortoises, add or force-feed a broad-spectrum antiparasitic once in food; captive-bred ones can wait until late autumn or early winter for one dose. Worms usually pass 2–3 days later. Despite its hard shell, mixing different sizes causes smaller ones to be squeezed and underfed while larger ones dominate. As a rule, separate tortoises whose carapace lengths differ by more than 5 cm.

Most prefer higher temperatures; suitable range is 25–35°C. Prolonged low temperature causes respiratory and digestive illness, sometimes fatal. For newly imported individuals, warm baths are important — they promote defecation and appetite, let you add nutrients to the water for unwell ones, and help judge health from feces and water intake.

4 Habitat and Distribution

It lives in dry desert regions, but at the desert edge rather than the deep desert — richer in food and less harsh, an ideal place to survive and avoid predators. However, it breeds with difficulty, so numbers have always been low.

It inhabits dry environments with cacti and spiny plants and digs burrows up to 10 m long. Herbivorous, eating local grasses, flowers, cacti, and legumes; it rarely eats non-native plants. Its habitat lies in the deserts of California and Arizona — dry grassland and rocky desert at about 3000–4000 m elevation, on steep, sloping rocky hillsides rich in over 300 cactus species, its main food. This special environment is vital to its survival; around age 6 the main wild threat is the local cougar, and dense cactus clusters provide safe shelter.

5 Feeding

It is very picky and often prefers only native plants, which troubles keepers; conventional plants cannot satisfy its strong dietary demands, so try growing your own.

Choose tropical hibiscus shrubs, which can serve as fences and shade, with flowers and leaves as nutritious food. Buy a large pot or take cuttings from a friend. They do not tolerate severe cold or drought. Plant cuttings 12 inches long (pencil-thick), leaving one or two leaves on top, in a jar with 4 inches of water plus a dose of VB-1; after overnight soaking, wrap the root end with naphthalene acetic acid, then plant 6 inches deep. Use a one-gallon pot with sandy soil or plant directly in the yard; water with VB-1 mix for the first few days. It likes sun but filtered is best (under trees or shrubs). Prune in winter/spring; when 18 inches tall, move to the yard, spacing for 6–8 foot growth. Then enjoy the flowers daily and feed them to the tortoise.