The Mojave desert tortoise has been listed as endangered by the State of California yesterday (April 18).
in 1989, the Mojave desert tortoise was listed as threatened by the State’s Fish and Game Commission.
At the commission’s meeting this week, they approved a petition to change the tortoise’s status to endangered, and the commission’s executive said the change was necessary because the reptile’s current situation is “dire,” saying the listing is “necessary to generate substantially increased attention and efforts to reverse the very real likelihood that desert tortoise will become extinct in California.”
The commission’s report said that conditions have worsened for the Mojave desert tortoise, citing development in the California desert, amplified by the effects of climate change and the tortoise’s long life and late sexual maturity, as the major factors in their declining numbers.
The Commission hopes that by listing the Mojave desert tortoise as endangered, it’s habitats within the desert can be better protected at the state level, and additional efforts can be made to protect the animal. The listing will be formally adopted at the Commission’s next meeting on May 15.
