Spotting a Mojave Desert tortoise is increasingly difficult in the American Southwest. The tortoises, with their unmistakable domed patterned shells, live in California, parts of Nevada, Arizona and northwestern Mexico. But they have lost habitat over the decades to encroaching development. They're also at risk from disease and climate change, all of which threaten their existence.
In four out of the five primary regions where Mojave Desert tortoises can be found, some estimates show that around 90% of tortoises have disappeared since 1984.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife classified the Mojave Desert tortoise as threatened in 1989. A year later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the tortoise as threatened. But California has taken measures a step further this year by declaring the tortoise as endangered under the state's Endangered Species Act. That designation means the tortoises are likely to go extinct if they are not managed properly.
The state agency's spokesperson, Krysten Kellum, said in an email that the status change could increase the likelihood that state, federal and resource management agencies will prioritize and distribute more funds toward protection and recovery actions.
"The uplisting highlights the urgency of tortoise conservation needs," Kellum wrote.
Earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, fired 420 USFW probationary staff. Nearly another 300 took the Trump administration's deferred resignation offer. The administration has also proposed cutting the budgets of the USFWS, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service. Those agencies are all tasked with managing endangered and threatened species on federal lands, including the desert tortoise.
Garrett Peterson, a spokesperson for the USFWS, said in an emailed statement that the agency remains committed to fulfilling the mission of conserving fish, wildlife, and natural resources for the American people. But the agency could "not comment on personnel matters or on Congressional deliberations regarding appropriations."
Kristina Drake used to lead the Desert Tortoise Recovery Office for the USFWS. She signed the administration's deferred resignation letter in the spring. Drake says she doesn't anticipate any additional federal funding to support the tortoise — a species that's survived in the desert for at least 15 million years.
Nonetheless, nonprofits like the Mojave Desert Land Trust, located in the town of Joshua Tree, and others remain steadfast in wanting to protect and preserve the desert tortoise and its habitat.
And on a warm early morning summer day, Patrick Emblidge and Clay Noss with the Mojave Desert Land Trust, are hopeful they can catch a glimpse of a desert tortoise. To do that, they're searching for holes that tortoises make, often called burrows, in a canyon near Joshua Tree, where the town's namesake tree flourishes near desert flora and grasses.
It's difficult to find a desert tortoise because they spend the majority of their time underground. And they are rare, explains Emblidge. "They're at serious risk of going extinct and it's terribly unjust."
'Death from a thousand cuts'
Since being listed as a threatened species more than 35 years ago, tortoise numbers have continued to dwindle. Ed LaRue, who's on the board of directors for the Desert Tortoise Council, a group that focuses on the species' survival, says it took five years for California to review data to move the tortoise from threatened to endangered earlier this year.
"The state's determination was in California, the tortoise is worse off now than it was when it was formally listed back in 1989," LaRue says. "So, even though there are a few places where you can go and see them, at a population level, they're still declining across the board."
That's despite the existence of five recovery areas for the Mojave Desert tortoise in the Southwest. They include the Upper Virgin River, Northeastern Mojave, Eastern Mojave, Western Mojave and Eastern Colorado.
There's no single issue that has contributed to the tortoise downturn, says Cameron Barrows, who studies deserts at the University of California, Riverside. He and many scientists describe the tortoises' decline as "death from a thousand cuts." That's because they face multiple threats, including off-road vehicles, predators, drought, and even military bases.
Then there's climate change.
" Climate change is one of those things, and it's not minor at all," Barrows says. "It's a very important aspect of what's going on with tortoises."
Human-caused climate change makes temperatures hotter and droughts last longer. Jeff Lovich, a retired scientist who researched tortoises at the U.S. Geological Survey for over 30 years, says higher temperatures contribute to the sex determination of tortoise hatchlings.
During California's long drought that lasted from 2012 to 2016, Lovich conducted a study that showed a big decline in female tortoises. That's because when female tortoises lay eggs, they lose water and protein. Drought exacerbates this, ultimately affecting the population's survival.
" The eggs are about the size of a ping pong ball," Lovich says. "If females are doing that during a drought, it's gonna put them in life-threatening situations, and we think we documented that with their high mortality during that epic drought."
A keystone species
Some conservationists call tortoises "ecosystem engineers" because they build between seven to 17 burrows underground per year.
When tortoises tire of their burrow, they abandon them and relocate. Lovich says that's when other critters like snakes, birds and small mammals move in.
"If you took the tortoise away, you would take away that service that they provide for other species," he explains.
In the Mojave Desert, Emblidge and Noss study a burrow that's too big to be a tortoise's home. It's shaped like a half-moon – flat on the bottom and domed on the top – and sandwiched under a large boulder. They come to the same conclusion.
"Yeah, it's a tortoise burrow, it's just so big," Emblidge says. "It looks like it could have been modified by a fox or a coyote."
But losing the tortoise from the Mojave Desert would mean losing more than recycled burrows. The species' extinction could drastically change the landscape, says Emblidge.
"It would remove a keystone animal that is an indicator of ecosystem health," says Emblidge, who spent eight years studying tortoises at the USGS in the Southwest. "If tortoises are going extinct, we're doing something wrong and everything else is suffering as well."
A 'tortoisey area'
In the Mojave Desert, Emblidge and Noss point out desert dandelion, devil's lettuce and other forage tortoises like to munch on. They hope that maybe the elusive desert tortoise will appear on this hot summer morning. After a short hike, Emblidge and Noss drop to their knees to look underneath a boulder. There, burrowed back into the dirt and camouflaged by the rock, is a tortoise with its big domed shell and stubby feet.
Emblidge and Noss climb higher up the rocks and spot another tortoise.
"This is a really tortoisey area," Noss says.
This one has a burrow in between two boulders where she's — yes, the tortoise is a female — buried deep, providing ample shade and protection from predators. Only her back shell and one leg are visible. "She's not very photogenic today," laughs Emblidge.
Emblidge and Noss say seeing two tortoises in one day is special because they're in serious danger of going extinct. "They are amazing animals when you get to know 'em," Noss says, "and they're doing what they can to survive out here. We're just not really giving them a chance."
But with additional federal funding for tortoise conservation unlikely, groups like the Mojave Desert Land Trust and the Desert Tortoise Council become more important, according to Drake, formerly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She says those groups will have to continue to "hold the line for a few years," for the sake of all endangered species and ecosystems.
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