Desert Days

Mornings under the Mojave moonlight are certainly mornings to live by. The moon sets in the early hours as we are greeted by the yellow and pink flurry of a sunrise over the mountains. The glow of the crisp morning is what motivates us to as we are met by the warmth of Her rays. It is with her warm energy that we can carry on throughout the spring day. We are not always greeted by Her warmth though - sometimes we face the high desert winds that bring an eerie coldness and sand storms. Each day is unpredictable as we move with the migration of the Mojave desert tortoise and work alongside the weather patterns of Mother Nature. We are at Her mercy and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

First things first we prepare our gear: we need our handling equipment for health assessments, our receiver, GPS and yogi satellite device to track, and walkie talkie to communicate amongst other field gear. We pack the Jeeps with plenty of water and everything we need to survive in the vast desert wilderness. We have to prepare for anything to happen when we monitor and track the Mojave desert tortoise.

As we drive through Barstow, California I notice the history of the area through the historical mural paintings on Main St. I knew as soon as I arrived these murals had a story to tell. It is not long until we are out of town. There is nothing quit as soothing as driving through highway country on long desert roads. 

Where are we going today, Apollo, Venus or Mars? Into the Mojave we go to observe and discover the world of extreme plants and reptiles. As we enter our field site we determine the number of tortoises we have to track and then off we go, to search for tortoises. Our goal is to track previously transmitted tortoises and tag new ones with our mission in mind - to better understand the overall health and population status of the desert tortoise.

We use a receiver to enter the frequency number attached to the transmitter that is tagged on the tortoise. I start to track the tortoise with my GPS and yogi device, which is a silver like antenna that receives real time satellite updates on the tortoises location at all times. 

As we track we always look for signs of tortoise activity, i.e checking other burrows, annual plant presence or recent skat that is left on the desert floor. These clues help us to understand their recent activity. We stop to examine these clues and study the different perennial and annual plant species. As tortoises biologists it is necessary that we understand the rare plant community in the desert to better understand tortoise diet and habitat requirements. 

When I track a tortoise to its burrow it is usually burrowed in a soil or rock burrow. The soil burrow is typically dug under creosote scrub or a white bur sage, which are two of the most common plant species that tortoises prefer to burrow under. Fun fact, 80% of the tortoises diet relies on 10 different plant species, 7 of which are annuals and 3 of which are perennials. 

As spring approaches the tortoise become active and hungry when plants are at the emergence stage of their phenological cycle. This means that they understand the flowering cycle of each species they prefer to forage on and surface at the time the plant is most nutritious to eat, i.e the emergence stage. From a physiological standpoint, this is an incredibly impressive feature. 

Ten hours later and we have used all the gear and natural clues we need to successfully track the Mojave desert tortoise. We do this on repeat for an eight day work hitch with the hopes of tracking transmitted tortoises and finding new ones to include in our population estimates.