Our Desert Tortoise Adventure
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Last October, I got a text message from my husband with a link to a news article: “Dozens of Captive Desert Tortoises Need Forever Homes“. Arizona’s Game and Fish Department rescues tons of desert tortoises that cannot be returned to the wild. “Let’s do it” said his message, and I was on board! We looked into the requirements, thought it seemed reasonable, but realized that adoptions had just closed for the year. With the holidays coming up, we decided it was best to wait for another time. Little did we know, that wasn’t the end of our desert tortoise adventure.
“Wait, is that in our yard?”
In early December, I came upon a desert tortoise in the alley behind our house. I couldn’t believe it! Considering the time of year and circumstances, we brought him into the backyard to figure out what to do next. As we continued working in the yard, he made himself at home, cruising around and munching on the grass. Tickled by the coincidence, I snapped a photo of him and sent it to my husband. “Wait, is that in our yard?” He was clearly accustomed to people and having found him in the neighborhood, we figured he escaped from someone’s yard. I spent the next week trying to reunite him with an owner (a story for another day) and admiring his purposeful march around the yard. It didn’t take long at all for us to be tortoise obsessed!
A Clean Bill of Health
With no success in finding an owner, I reached out to AZGFD to see how we should proceed. They asked me to bring him in, and when we visited the local office, they asked if I was interested in adopting him, provided he was healthy. No question there – we were hooked. About a week after we took our tortoise friend to AZGFD, I received an email. He had passed all of his vet checkups and was comfortably brumating (like hibernating, but for reptiles) in their facility. In short, if we were still interested, we had “dibs” on this tortoise. All we needed to do was build an appropriate habitat and get approved to adopt! That was all I needed to hear: I dove headfirst into desert tortoise care and habitat research. And let me tell you, there’s a lot of research to be done!
The Adventure Begins
In my (at least 2 months worth) of research, I’ve discovered a lot but I’ve also come up with a lot of questions. Tortoise habitat plans and care resources are scattered all over the internet, but it can be tough to piece all that info together as a newcomer. So hey! If you’re interested in our journey to becoming desert tortoise custodians (or maybe you are considering becoming one yourself), buckle up! We’ve got a long road ahead of us. But you know how it goes for the tortoise and the hare, right? Slow and steady wins the race.
This kicks off a series of posts all about our desert tortoise adventure, from habitat creation and diet to general care and tortoise info. In addition to bringing you along as we create a habitat and welcome our prehistoric friend, we’ll begin another series on landscaping our backyard with some DIY flair. Stay tuned! If you are looking for more gardening and plant content, check out my other posts here.
