Desert Tortoise: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Wild Mix · day 5 of 7

Five facts

1. The desert ground can top 60 °C, so this tortoise digs its way out of the heat. It spends at least 95% of its life underground in burrows.
2. Its burrows are busy places. Burrowing owls, quail, squirrels and even rattlesnakes move in, and one burrow can hold up to 23 tortoises.
3. It carries its own water tank: a huge bladder holding over 40% of its body weight. Adults can last a year or more with nothing to drink.
4. A mother lays four to eight hard eggs, each about the size and shape of a ping-pong ball.
5. Patience is its style. It often needs 16 years or more just to reach about 20 cm long.

The quiz

1. How much of its life does a desert tortoise spend in burrows?

• About 10%
• Half
• At least 95% (correct)
• None at all

At least 95% of its life is spent in burrows, away from the heat.

2. How many desert tortoises can share one burrow?

• Never more than 1
• Up to 23 (correct)
• Exactly 2
• Up to 500

As many as 23 desert tortoises may share a single burrow.

3. How can an adult desert tortoise survive long dry spells?

• It stores water in a big bladder (correct)
• It drinks seawater
• It flies to an oasis
• It sweats to stay cool

Its large bladder stores water, and adults can go a year or more without drinking.

4. Desert tortoise eggs are about the size of what?

• A grain of rice
• A football
• A watermelon
• A ping-pong ball (correct)

Each egg is roughly as big and round as a ping-pong ball.

5. How long can it take a desert tortoise to grow to about 20 cm?

• 2 months
• 16 years or more (correct)
• 1 year
• 3 weeks

Growth is slow: reaching about 20 cm often takes 16 years or more.

More about the Desert Tortoise

Same week

All lessons

Nature documentaries