A: A desert tortoise’s diet should consist of 85 percent grass, weeds and dark, leafy greens, while only 15 percent should be vegetables that you are growing. Fruit can be given as a treat but ...

Dotty the desert tortoise enjoys a snack of yellow trumpet flowers in Scottsdale, Ariz., on May 4, 2023. The surprising warmth of these ancient cold-blooded creatures has made them popular pets ...

They’re not fluffy, they don’t play fetch and they certainly don’t roll over. But there is such a thing as a lap tortoise. What’s more, pet tortoises can wag their tails, will plod on up ...

The tortoise faces many threats, including encroaching urbanization, agriculture and pesticides, vehicles both on and off roads, mining operations and military exercises that drop bombs in the desert.

Only one type, appropriately named the desert tortoise, is native to Southern California. Its home turf is the Mojave Desert. To be clear, all tortoises are turtles — the way that all greyhounds ...

Shelldon is one of many desert tortoises finding new homes across the state. The new digs come courtesy of the Utah Desert Tortoise Adoption Program, which began in the 1990s after desert ...

The desert tortoise had previously been classified as "threatened" by the California Endangered Species Act in 1989, as well as by the federal Endangered Species Act of 1990.

There are two desert tortoise species in the Southwest: the Sonoran, which is most common east and south of the Colorado River, and the Mojave, found west and north of the river.

Dotty the desert tortoise enjoys a snack of yellow trumpet flowers in Scottsdale, Ariz., on May 4, 2023. The surprising warmth of these ancient cold-blooded creatures has made them popular pets ...

We met with Wolf on a recent sun-baked Arizona day when we picked up our desert tortoise, now named Dotty for the light brown spots on her shell. Dotty is about a foot (30 centimeters) long, with ...