Have Desert Tortoises Undergone a Long-Term Decline in Abundance?
Bury RB and Corn PS. 1995. Have Desert Tortoises Undergone a Long-Term Decline in Abundance?. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 23(1):41-47
The authors question previous assessments of a recent significant decline in numbers of desert tortoises. Some of the basis for inferring a decline is anecdotal. This report briefly lists other early references to desert tortoises, and notes that Native Americans hunted the tortoises for food. It suggests that tortoises have not been abundant in historic times, but instead were widely distributed in smaller numbers. If this is the case, management efforts which tended to ignore low-density populations may have been misguided. The authors emphasize the need for rigorous, peer-reviewed statistics as the basis of a scientifically accurate management effort for desert tortoises. (The report includes two brief mentions of Joshua Tree National Monument.)
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Bury, R; Corn, Paul
- Units
- JOTR , MOJA
- Keywords
- Absence (Biodiversity), Abundance (Biodiversity), abundance distribution, Animal Studies, Critique, Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), Distribution (Biodiversity), Gopherus agassizii, Gopherus agassizii (Desert Tortoise), historic decline, historic declines, long-term decline, management issue, Mojave Desert, Population Trends, Presence (Biodiversity), Reptile, Reptilia (Reptiles), respiratory disease, Sonoran Desert, Taxa Links To References, Testudines, Testudinidae (Tortoises), Threatened Species, tortoise populations, Trends, USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service), Wildlife Conservation