ST. GEORGE — Standing in a bucket of water, a tortoise takes one last drink before being carried across red sand and through sagebrush in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve to a new home.
Staff and biology interns with the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve and the Utah Division of Wildlife resources translocated five Mojave Desert tortoises from a construction site to a new location, Ammon Teare, the Outreach Coordinator for Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, said.
The most common circumstance triggering a translocation is when a tortoise’s home is at a future development site, Mike Schijf, biologist with the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve said.
Land that tortoises are suspected of living on is surveyed by a biologist, who will later conduct a more in-depth clearance survey if signs of the animal are seen so that they can be relocated, Schijf said.
“Just so that they’re not in the path of any earthmoving equipment,” he said.
The animals then receive medical tests to clear them of chronic diseases or other ailments that would make their transition more difficult or impact tortoises already living at the new location.
Once cleared, they are ready for relocation. Schijf said they don’t release the reptiles in the winter when they should be in their burrows or in high-temperature conditions.
The group left early on Aug. 23, when temperatures were milder, Teare said. They placed the tortoises in 5-gallon buckets filled with enough water for the animals to stand in.
The tortoises used the opportunity to drink and “soak up as much water” as possible, Teare said, helping to ensure that they were in good physical condition before release. After about 20 minutes of soaking, they emptied the water.
Carrying the buckets, the group hikes to a predetermined area. Individuals sometimes split up to find a “good spot” for release in the general vicinity, typically near existing burrows from older populations, in the shade, or a place where the reptiles can forage, Teare said.
The tortoises are given a “hard release,” which means the reserve doesn’t prepare burrows or perform other work on the landscape before letting them loose.
The translocation program is a “big part” of why the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan was established, Teare said. It was approved by Washington County in 1996, with 62,000 acres set aside for the reserve, which has since expanded.
“We’re here to serve the needs of tortoises but also to help people in Washington County,” he said. “And especially since the area is developing at a really fast rate and people are always looking for new places to build homes or roads …. We want to make sure that those can be carried out in a safe and effective manner.”
Choosing a location
Where the tortoises are released depends on where they are found, Schijf said. The animal is released in the reserve if it is found nearby.
But, in most cases over the last “20 years or so,” Schijf said tortoises are relocated to the Babylon area, which includes the Babylon Arch trail, Sand Cove and Sandstone Mountain.
Before releasing tortoises there, the reserve surveyed the environment to determine if tortoises were already present to avoid overcrowding, which can make them more susceptible to disease, Schijf said. An existing population was not found. Additionally, they concluded that the habitat type could sustain the reptiles.
It wasn’t known at the time if relocating the animals would be successful, and some have referred to the process as “soft euthanasia,” Schijf said, adding that moving tortoises was still preferred over putting them down. However, through reserve-wide monitoring, they discovered the tortoises were surviving and reproducing.
“The population appears to be fairly viable,” he said.
Over 500 tortoises were translocated to the Babylon area, Teare said.
Once the population is at its carrying capacity, Schijf said a new location would need to be chosen. So, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources was tasked with writing a new translocation plan as the “primary decision-makers” of tortoise management.
Habitats where the tortoise has the best chance of survival and can best contribute to the desert tortoise’s overall recovery are preferred, Schijf said.
“If you translocate them strategically and put them in certain areas, that can actually be used as a tool to help the population at large, especially as it pertains to population connectivity and gene flow between populations,” he said.
The translocation program has been successful in Washington County, Schijf said and the tortoise population is “thriving.” Similar programs were tried in other parts of the Mojave Desert with “horrific results.”
“In a lot of other places, if you were to go do subsequent surveys, you would find a lot more carcasses than live animals,” he said. “And so we are pretty lucky here that tortoises have done so well.”
It isn’t necessarily anything the reserve does differently than other programs, however, and is more likely due to the local habitat, Shijf said.
“Tortoises, just in general, seem to do better here than elsewhere in the Mojave,” he said. “We have the highest density population, even though we’re the smallest area.”
However, tortoise numbers are still declining in Southern Utah, with an estimated 50% of the reserve’s population lost since the early 2,000’s. But. Schijf said populations in other regions have been “worse off.”
Washington County receives more rainfall, comparatively, and is slightly higher in elevation with more diverse terrain due to its proximity to the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin. Schijf said this combination of factors could contribute to local tortoises’ higher survival rates.
For more information about the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve and Mojave Desert tortoises, click here.
Photo Gallery
A tortoise getting hydrated in a bucket before being let loose in its new home, St. George, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Ammon Teare, St. George News A tortoise being let loose in its new home, St. George, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Mike Schijf, St. George News A tortoise being let loose in its new home, St. George, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Mike Schijf, St. George News A tortoise being let loose in its new home, St. George, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Ammon Teare, St. George News Tortoises getting hydrated in a bucket before being let loose in its new home, St. George, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Ammon Teare, St. George News A tortoise being let loose in its new home, St. George, Utah, Aug. 23, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Ammon Teare, St. George News Clyde, a tortoise that lives at the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve's office, St. George, Utah, Sept. 6, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Bonnie, a tortoise that lives at the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve's office, St. George, Utah, Sept. 6, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Bonnie, a tortoise that lives at the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve's office, St. George, Utah, Sept. 6, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News A display showing approximate tortoise sizes based on age at the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve office, St. George, Utah, Sept. 6, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News Bonnie, a tortoise that lives at the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve's office, St. George, Utah, Sept. 6, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, St. George News
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