Desert Tortoise

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Building Desert Tortoise Habitat

We have been wanting to build a Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) habitat for some time. Our opportunity finally came last fall and we have finally finished! The plants need to grow up (a LOT) but we need to wait until next summer to get a tortoise anyway. Here in Arizona, the Game and Fish Department regulates the posession of Desert Tortoises. They have lots of useful information on their website.


Basically, if you build a habitat that meets their specifications, they will “adopt out” a tortoise to you. The tortoise is still property of the State of Arizona, but you can keep it and enjoy its company!

 

It is illegal to capture a Desert Tortoise from the wild or release a Desert Tortoise into the wild. Most of the Tortoises up for adoption were raised in captivity (breeding them in captivity is illegal) and they need to go somewhere. If you see a Desert Tortoise in the wild, observe it and enjoy it – but leave it alone and don’t pick it up!

 

I got a lot of pictures of the entire process and wanted to share them with you. It was a lot of work, but we really like the way it came out. I’m going to let the pictures tell the whole story.


Another picture of the footers with the re-bar visible in the bottom. The habitat wraps around our windmill.

The Beginning - 12" deep footers around the habitat area. The pond liner will be outside the tortoise pen but is part of the landscaping.


Pouring the footings

We used almost 5 yards of cement in the footings! They are 12" deep so a Tortoise can't dig under them. We had to wheelbarrow the cement across to the other side because our landscaping wouldn't allow for truck access everywhere.




A good start...

C

The footings are poured! We made a shallow cement dish for the Tortoise to soak in or drink from out of extra cement. The other piles are also extra cement that we let dry before removing it and using it as fill.

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The new enclosure takes shape. Block walls & Stucco

Here is an overview with all the block and stucco work done. It rained during the final coat of stucco which caused runs and drips to form. We were after an "old adobe" look and didn't like the way the rain made the drips, but it has "grown" on us and I think it adds to the "look". You can see the Tortoise water dish in place in the pen and the roof of the burrow on the right in front of the base of the windmill.


The three rows of block are up! An opening has been left so loads of mortar can be moved to the far side of the pen. There are lots of wide cracks in-between blocks on the tight radius corners that need to be pre-filled before the stucco goes on. It is amazing how much material this project took and how much it all weighed!!!

Filled with native soil

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The well recirculates  water from the pond

Complete



Inside the pen, you can see the den and the water dish. The antler sheds are for the Tortoise to chew on for extra calcium. I have small rock piles around the plants to give them a little protection. All the plants in the habitat are native plants that are used as food for Desert Tortoises. The entire inside of the habitat has been seeded with a mix of 14 species of native grasses that are used by Tortoises for grazing. I still need to put a prickly pear cactus in the pen but I am waiting for the cut pads to callus over before I plant them. Then, it will just be a matter of waiting for things to grow up a lot and we will be ready to submit our application!

A good start...



We put our tortoise in the habitat and he promptly went about eating grass! He also got a piece of watermelon rind for desert. It took a couple days, but we settled on the name “Obediah” for him, as he looks like an old-time prospector or miner (Obediah in the Bible was one of the “minor prophets”).

Obadiah entering den for his Winter hibernation


No, this is not a picture of Obadiah entering his den, never to emerge until next spring. He still comes out on nice warm afternoons to graze on a little grass. But his appetite is way down – we were told by the Dr. to not feed him anything extra. Obadiah is supposed to clear out his system before he goes to sleep for the winter. He knows how to do this, and exactly when to do this – we just need to stay out of the way! When I think he is not going to come out any more I plan to pack some native grass hay into the opening to his den so that it stays drier and warmer inside. Then, we will look forward to his coming out again in the spring!

Finally, warmth! Desert Tortoise out of hibernation


Obadiah, our Desert Tortoise is officially out of hibernation! We have seen him sitting in the sun in front of his den off and on over the winter on warm days, but in the past week we spotted him eating and drinking again. He is still moving slow, and likes to doze in the entrance to his den, but he has survived the winter! We look forward to his becoming more active and being able to feed him native food treats again soon!