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 Who Am I, Really? Hello, my name is Mojave Max. I am a cartoon desert tortoise and spokes tortoise for the Clark County Desert Conservation Program (the DCP). I speak for all the plants and animals that live in the
More people are moving to Southern Nevada than ever before. People hope that if they save and take care of the land, enough species will survive, even though some individuals of those species may be lost. More people are building and playing on the same land where we plants and animals live and sometimes this causes us problems.
I am also a real live tortoise
 and I live at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area near Las Vegas. I am the largest reptile in Nevada and I am the official Nevada State Reptile. My scientific name is Gopherus agassizii.Tortoises have existed on Earth for approximately 20 million years. Wow! That’s a long time. One of my relatives, the Galapagos tortoise, lives on the Galapagos Islands near Ecuador. It can weigh up to 600 pounds. My species, the desert tortoise, doesn’t grow nearly that large. We begin at about 2 inches in length when we hatch from the egg and grow to about 12 inches and up to 20 pounds. Most of us who make it to five years of age can live about 85 years. Some of us live more than 100 years.
Most of the desert tortoises in Nevada live in southern part of the state near Las Vegas. Other tortoises of my species live in Utah, California, Arizona, and Mexico.
 Look for this sign when you visit my habitat at Red Rock National Conservation Area.
I share the wild areas of Nevada with more than 4,000 species of plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals as well as thousands of other species without backbones.
Just about all kinds of plants and animals, alive or dead, are food for other plants and animals. So, wildlife conservation needs to include even kinds of snails beetles, bats, mice, and plants. Human beings also benefit in many ways from wild plants and animals. An interesting example is how the early Native Americans use the tortoise.
Living in the desert is not easy for tortoises. We are threatened by natural things like water being scarce. Summer temperatures that are very hot. We are herbivores (vegetarians) and, green plants are available for only a short time each year, if at all. During the first few years of our lives our shells have not yet hardened which makes us an easier meal for predators such as coyotes and ravens.
There are added threats that result from the presence of human beings. Some of us have lost our homes due to development of roads and homes for people. In many places our habitats are damaged and produce fewer plants for food and fewer shrubs for shade. This is the result of uses and abuses by people. Some of us become caught in trash left by thoughtless people. Another problem that many people do not realize is that when they get too close to us or try to pick us up we tend to urinate, losing the precious water in our bladders. Although we can go for a long time without a drink, we do rely heavily on the reserve in our bladders. Therefore, if we lose that reserve and cannot find more water quickly, we may die.
For more information about who Mojave Max is, go to:
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