Drinking and Construction of Water Catchments by the Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, in the Mojave Desert
Medica PA, Bury RB, Luckenbach RA. 1980. Drinking and Construction of Water Catchments by the Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii, in the Mojave Desert. Herpetologica. 36(4):301-304
This paper reports how free-living tortoises can obtain water in an arid environment. This study reports that desert tortoise actively drink water when available. Sporadic spring and summer rains occur in localized areas throughout the Mojave Desert during the March-November active period of the desert tortoise. During the course of this study tortoises were observed to increase their surface activity during and after rainfall. Most of the observations occurred at Rock Valley, Nye County, NV and at Stoddard Valley, 9 km SW of Barstow, San Bernardino County between 1976 and 1979. During the course of the study, one tortoise was observed drinking from a puddle while in other areas, tortoises became active during and following periods of rain. The authors hypothesize that the tortoises become more active during and following rainfall in order to actively drink water and that desert tortoise may actually dig depressions to increase the number of possible drinking sites.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Medica, Philip; Bury, R; Luckenbach, Roger
- Units
- JOTR , MOJA
- Keywords
- Basin, Desert Tortoise, Digging, drinking, Gopherus agassizii (Desert Tortoise), Mojave Desert, Rain, Reptiles (Reptilia), Reptilia (Reptiles), Taxa Links To References, Testudines, Testudinidae (Tortoises), Vascular Plants (Plantae), Weight