#1780 · 🦎 reptiles

Mojave Desert Tortoise

🇳🇱 Woestijnschildpad ·Gopherus agassizii

CRcritically endangered 🦎 Reptiles 📍 outside Europe

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Kevin Chen · CC BY-NC 4.0
2. © Tyson Victor · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © Charles (Chuck) Peterson · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
4. © Jess · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. © sandy.redding · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
6. © Pacific Southwest Region USFWS · CC BY 4.0
7. © James Maughn · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. © Doug Olberding · CC BY-NC 4.0
9. © Corey Lange · CC BY-NC 4.0
10. © Tom Hilton · CC BY 4.0

what is it?

The desert tortoises ( Gopherus agassizii and Gopherus morafkai ) are two species of tortoise native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico and the Sinaloan thornscrub of northwestern Mexico. G. agassizii is distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. The specific name agassizii is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. Recently, on the basis of DNA, geographic, and behavioral differences between desert...

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 5,079iNaturalist observations
threat CRcritically endangered

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
5,079 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by James Graham Cooper in 1863 (163 years ago).
Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.