I couldn’t believe Stephanie when she said that we were going to the Mojave (pronounced Moh-Ha-Vee) Desert. I mean, I have read about the desert tortoises and about Mojave Desert but I didn’t know that we were actually near enough to even have time to go visit it!
Anyway, we drove about an hour and a half to get to the Randsburg-Mojave Road which you MUST turn into if you wanted to see the desert tortoises. We did not make the turn at the junction and we landed ourselves in the middle of a desert on a dirt road in a BMW sports car! We had to go as slowly as 5 miles per hour because the roads weren’t paved and we didn’t want a flat tire when we were in the desert
We were given directions to get to the camp ground and we finally made it there, and we were only 30 minutes late!
There was a Desert Tortoise Kiosk at the Desert Tortoise Natural Area (DTNA) and in the kiosk, there were lots of information sheets and brochures about programs that were currently being carried out as well as souvenirs and paintings for sale. There was also a Field Researcher (I feel so bad for forgetting her name) who would be there until sometime in June and she would be there to man the kiosk and to answer any questions that visitors might have.
Now, see this burrow?
That is a home for a desert tortoise! We can roughly tell the size of the tortoise by looking at the size of the burrow. A burrow can be up to 12m in length and 3m in depth. Most tortoises stay in their burrows when we were there because it wasn’t exactly warm enough yet. In fact, it was still cold and wind speed was estimated at between 25 to 35 miles per hour.
But we were very lucky We managed to see 5 desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) on that particular day, and one of them was spotted on the dirt road (not in the burrow)!
Desert tortoises are thought to live 40 - 60 years. They grow relatively slowly and adult females are larger than adult males (for obvious reasons). They typically breed from April to June and the female tortoises lay between 1 and 11 eggs. Incubation period for eggs varies from 80 to more than 100 days.
Also, check out the video that shows the 360-degree view of the desert (don’t view it if you get dizzy easily):
More pictures of the visit to the Mojave Desert here.
As soon as Stephanie picked me up from the Behler Chelonian Conservation Center, we went to Woodlands Hills to prepare for a Turtle Show which would be held the next day.
The Turtle Show is basically a fund-raiser where turtle lovers put up booths and information sheets and items for sale to raise funds to run the California Turtle and Tortoise Club (CTTC). In case you’re wondering, the CTTC was founded in 1964 and has over 1,800 members world-wide.
The Turtle Show was opened to the public from 11 am to 4 pm, but the church where the show was held was flocked with people arranging their booths and their exhibits, labeling their turtles, putting up donation boxes and what-have yous.
Many turtle keepers brought their own turtles and/or tortoises for display and some CTTC members also brought some turtle items for sale.
I wouldn’t say that response from the public was over-whelming but that was probably due to the record-high temperature (110 deg F / 43 deg C) in Woodland Hills on that day But I was glad to be a part of the “team” and I was glad for the opportunity to meet some turtle enthusiasts and some interesting people at the Turtle Show
More pictures of the CTTC-Valley Turtle Show @ Woodlands Hills here.
We were supposed to be looking for Pacific pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata) on our way up the creek, though I’m not very fond of waterfalls. I remember when I was in my first year in university, we went on a field trip to a waterfall to collect water samples and invertebrates, etc. And when we were moving up the waterfall, one of my roommates slipped and all I could say yell was, “SOMEBODY! HOLD HER!” And as if “somebody upstairs” heard me, my roommate managed to stop herself from falling off a cliff!
Anyway, the Matilija Creek was very beautiful and we took about 2 hours before we found the first pond turtle. The turtles were very quick, and they immediately went into hiding the moment they heard us. And we had to look for them under huge rocks and in crevices.
We also found a pond turtle hatchling!
Which simply meant that the environment was good enough for the adults to breed, which is good news Especially when all you hear about these days are the declining turtle populations all over the world.
So in total, the four of us spotted 10 pond turtles during our hike, but we only managed to catch 4. We took some pictures of the turtles, and those pictures will be archived in the database for future use.
But I was glad to be a part of the “team” and I was glad for the opportunity to meet some turtle enthusiasts and some interesting people at the Turtle Show 
