About 35 young desert tortoises will be released into the wild today, September 30, in a ceremony on board the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center. The baby tortoises, which are about 9 years old, have been raised in a “head start” program on the base since 2006 as part of a long-term research program with the University of California that studies desert tortoise survivability, and seeks to bolster the population of desert tortoises in the Marines’ Sand Hill Training Area. Managing editor Tami Roleff says researchers are encouraged by their results so far, but the biggest test is yet to come…
“What we’ve had this past year is actually a 96 percent survivorship of all the babies at Sand Hill. In the wild, survivorship for the juveniles or hatchlings is actually quite low.” Ecologist Brian Henen at the Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs on board the Combat Center in Twentynine Palms is part of a “head start” program to bolster the desert tortoise population on the base. Female desert tortoises are brought inside a fenced and covered enclosure where they lay their eggs, and then the females are returned to their homes in the desert, where they can lay another clutch of eggs. “It’s relatively cutting edge in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish and its potential for actually helping the species recover.” The researchers have been fairly successful in getting the tortoise eggs to hatch. “We have hatching success between 70 and 90 percent.” Today is the first release of juvenile tortoises into the desert since the program started in 2006. Henen said the tortoises are between 4 and 5 inches long, big enough to survive most predators. “Coyotes, kit fox, badgers, common ravens, fire ants, ground squirrels, will also eat the eggs and the babies.” The researchers have dug burrows for the juveniles to use, and will monitor them closely via their attached transmitters for the next few weeks to make sure they have adjusted to living in the wild. “It’s a long-term commitment, but ultimately, the whole conservation of the species is a long-term commitment.”
