Desert Tortoises: Lucy and Ethel
Posted at 10:52 am June 23, 2009 by Rachel Foster
Greetings to my fellow tortoise lovers.
Last week we updated you on some of the challenges we face at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) in Las Vegas with regard to the condition many of the tortoises are in when they arrive here (see post, Desert Tortoises: A Sad Week). Whether out of ignorance or just sheer neglect on the part of their previous guardians, many of these tortoises arrive with a wide variety of conditions that range from metabolic bone disease and upper respiratory tract infection to severe body deformities and traumatic injuries, which are most commonly caused by dog bites or being hit by a vehicle. Despite these daily challenges, great things happen here as well, so this week I’d like to share with you one of our success stories.
Lucy and Ethel arrived at the DTCC on my second day at work, and I immediately fell in love. Okay, so I fall in love with all of my patients, but these two girls really hold a special place in my heart. When they arrived, we immediately noted their flattened carapaces (top shell), called pancaking, and they had quite a bit of pyramiding (raising) of their scutes (indivudal pieces of the shell). A normal healthy desert tortoise should have a nicely rounded carapace, and the scutes should all lay flat along the surface. In addition to the severe shell deformities, their skin was very yellow and flaking off, and their eyes were swollen so severely that they could barely open them. They were also so weak that they could not support their own weight enough to move about their enclosure. All of these signs indicate to us that these tortoises were definitely kept indoors for the majority of their lives so they didn’t get the proper heat and light and were not fed a well-balanced diet. It is quite miraculous that they have lived as long as they have and that their organs have not completely shut down.
So at this point you must be asking yourself, When will she get to the good part? Well, here it is: after weeks of providing them with the proper food, allowing them to bask outside daily in the sun’s natural rays and soaking them every other day in a tub of water to help them establish and maintain hydration, they look like new girls, so much so that our DTCC manager, Paula Kahn, refers to them as the Lovely Ladies! In these past few months they have gone from being marginally alive to interactive, beautiful eating machines, and even their skin and shell color is approaching normal. Of course, they will always be very recognizable because no amount of good food, light, and heat will fix the carapace deformities they have, but their skin looks 100 percent better, and we can finally see their beautiful eyes!
In addition to their physical improvements, they have also greatly improved in behavior. Like most sisters, they fight over the best spots in their enclosure, and, of course, they squabble over their food. They have changed from two very sick and depressed little girls that I worried wouldn’t make it to two very energetic and healthy (though a bit deformed) big girls (they’ve also gained quite a bit of weight). Due to the severe deformities of their carapaces, they cannot be released back to the wild but rather will be used as education animals to show students and visitors the proper way to care for a tortoise…a valuable lesson for all.
Rachel Foster is a research associate at the San Diego Zoo’s Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Thanks Rachel… you and Paula really exude passion and enthusiasm for your ‘charges’ and you do a great service to the species by writing these informative blogs. I hope people will wise up and quit trying to take them as pets.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:08 am
How lovely to hear a happy story about the tortoises. Good luck to Lucy and Ethel, they are so lucky to have been taken to the SDZ.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I’m late in commenting on this post, but thanks so much for a wonderful success story! I admire your work with the desert tortoises and know that successes such as these must make your day. I love the names that you picked out for your special girls.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I have 4 of them as pets – acquired thru the Turtle & Tortoise rescue society. I didn’t realize the raised scutes was due to lack of sun/heat but that makes sense. One of my males, Anthony (of Cleopatra fame) has that – he’s very healthy tho and eats like a pig. My other male, Popeye, I’ve had for 20 years. My females, Big Momma and Swee’ Pea, both have the URI – one is doing much better than the other. The reason so many of them are out there with this is dogs…let loose in the desert, reptiles released back into the wild to infect the others…if they weren’t rescued and kept as pets, they would die. Or, worse yet, infect others around them and they would all die. There are probably more of them in captivity than in the wild and, with the BLM striking again – moving them off of Ft Irwin with no new holes to go to nor familiarity with their new areas – we’ll probably lose a lot more them ‘in the wild’.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Vicki,
It’s great that you rescued the four tortoises that you legally obtained as pets! I hope the ones with upper respiratory tract disease are seen regularly by a vet because they can be treated for their symptoms, which can make them much more comfortable. It is important to know that the disease can only be transmitted through face-to-face contact or by sharing a water source among infected tortoises, since the bacteria die in the air and sunshine, so no worries, dogs cannot transmit the disease to tortoises. However, they may prey on them, which is infinitely worse! If your two other tortoises that appear healthy are in contact with your symptomatic tortoises, they too may be infected, but are able to ward off symptoms. You are correct that disease can spread among tortoise populations if symptomatic tortoises are dumped in the desert, so that’s a good reminder for all tortoise owners: if you decide to give up your tortoises, please turn them in to a responsible turtle or tortoise group, or if you are in southern Nevada, you can call the Tortoise Hotline at 702-593-9027 to have them picked up and brought to us.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Great article and pictures. I have three Desert Tortoises, the old guy is in his seventies, given to us by a friend who rescued him on a highway, a dozen or more years ago. Also two younger ones, now 10 years old, who were given to us by someone who suddenly found herself with a couple dozen newly hatched ones. They are fun to watch – slowly – and really easy care. They eat ALLOT of Romaine, broccoli, grapes, etc., but are getting ready now to hibernate ’till next spring, in the underground tunnel they built, inside their enclosed area in our yard. Super easy and fun pets! Our cat sometimes watches them eating, but really thinks they are quite boring!
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Joy, how wonderful to hear that you’ve got such an old tortoise! Be sure to go easy on the broccoli and grapes because they can cause bladder stones in pet tortoises – you should check them periodically to make sure they don’t have them because if left untreated, they can lead to mortality and we certainly don’t want that! Go heavy on dark leafy greens, like collard and dandelion greens (no spinach), and give prickly pear fruit as a sweet treat. You might want to start watching out for your 10 year olds because if they are different sexes, they will likely start mating in a few years, and since females store sperm, even after a single mating, she could give you hatchlings for 5 years or more, even if she never mates again! While the hatchlings are very cute, they can become a handful, and you could end up with an entire herd of tortoises in just a few years! But it sounds like you’re doing great with them, and they’re lucky to have such a great home!