Biologists in slow and steady race to help North America’s largest and rarest tortoise species

Subject :Environment

Section: Species in news

Source: TH

Context:

U.S. wildlife officials finalized an agreement with Ted Turner’s Endangered Species Fund for the release of more Bolson tortoises on the media mogul’s ranch in central New Mexico.

Details:

The “safe harbor agreement” will facilitate the release of captive tortoises on the Armendaris Ranch (lies in south central New Mexico along the Rio Grande River) to establish a free-ranging population.
The ranch is proving to be an ideal spot. The landscape is similar to that where the tortoises are found in Mexico, and work done on the ranch and at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Carlsbad has resulted in more than 400 tortoises being hatched since 2006.

About Bolson tortoises:

It is the largest and rarest land reptile, as well as the rarest of the six Gopherus species native to the North American Continent.
Adult males are generally smaller than females in this species.
The tortoise is a land-dwelling reptile that spends more than 95% of its time in a burrow that it constructs with its shovel-like front feet.
All foraging, nesting and mating activities take place during the tortoise’s active season from roughly April to October.
The average lifespan of a Bolson tortoise is not known but probably lies upward of a century.
Distribution: This species at present, is restricted to a relatively small area of the grasslands of north-central Mexico in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango, where it exists in disjunct sub-populations.
- Fossil records also show it was once present it the southern Great Plains, including parts of Texas and Oklahoma.
Conservation status IUCN: Critically Endangered