Tortoises on TV
Posted at 1:43 pm October 28, 2009 by Paula Kahn
Collette Wieland from KVBC with Mojave Max
We also introduced a family of 18 tortoises, ranging from hatchlings to adults, that all came to us through our Desert Tortoise Hotline from the same home and were not in very good health; it gave us the perfect opportunity to encourage people to surrender their pet desert tortoises to the Clark County Desert Tortoise Hotline here in southern Nevada so we can rehabilitate the tortoises and eventually release the healthy ones into the desert to help recover the species. We are confident that all 18 tortoises will be successfully rehabilitated by this time next year, and maybe even sooner.
We also reminded viewers that it is against the law to take a tortoise from the desert, or to even touch one because the interaction with the tortoise may cause it to void (pee or poop) and can result in dehydration and eventually even death. Collette Wieland interviewed both me and Roy Averill-Murray from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and she was very enthusiastic about helping us to reach out to the public to address issues regarding desert tortoises and to share our mission here at the DTCC, which is to play a critical role in conserving and restoring wild Mojave desert tortoise populations and their native habitat. Thank you KVBC for helping to support our efforts in saving the desert tortoise species!
Paula Kahn is a conservation program manager for the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research. Read a previous post, Desert Tortoises: Unexpected Nests.
Note: The Clark County Desert Tortoise Hotline number is 702-593-9027.
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October 28th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I wish you good luck and a great sucsess in saving the lifes of this beautiful animales.
October 30th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Hi Paula,
Did the eggs that you collected back in August hatch? Do you have the little ones running around yet? I hope you had great luck with them
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Yes, Marie, they hatched and they are doing great! They are all settling in for their winter brumation, and we can’t wait to see them emerge in the spring, ready for a meal. We recently received a donation of native plants that we planted in our new hatchling pens so we will have delicious natural food sources ready for them when they wake up. I will be sure to blog about them with pictures!