Ellie the desert tortoise lives in a pen at the DPW Environmental Center here.
The desert tortoise represents the epitome of a survivor.
Able to go a year or more with no access to water, the tortoise stores all it can get in a large bladder under its high domed shell. It minimizes water loss by sporting a thick, scale-covered skin and short, stumpy limbs. Finally, the tortoise has mastered its scorching environment by finding the perfect desert home: underground!
Tortoises may spend up to 98 percent of their lives deep in their cool, snug burrows which they excavate themselves with powerful front legs and long claws. As resilient as they are, though, about 90 percent of their population has been eliminated by human encroachment into the once-inhospitable desert.
Technology has allowed us humans to expand into the desert, developing cities, expanding housing, recreating with off-road vehicles and most recently, building huge alternative energy farms. All of these activities, while great for us, have not been so good for tortoises. The species was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, and although protected extensively, continues to decline in numbers.
If you are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a desert tortoise in the wild, stop, take pictures, but do not disturb the gentle reptiles.