As monsoon rains bring much needed water to Arizona's deserts, you may notice some of the state's beloved shell-backed reptiles on the move. State wildlife officials have a message for those who may ...

A Mojave desert tortoise is shown in its natural desert habitat where it can be very difficult to spot. The animal’s slow movement and camouflaged shell make it easy to mistake for a rock on dusty ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. This Sept. 3, 2008, file photo shows an endangered desert tortoise sitting in the middle of an eastern Mojave Desert road. | Reed ...

The desert tortoise, a once-resilient reptile, is a keystone species in the Mojave Desert, where other animals depend for their survival on the burrows it digs. But it is imperiled in California ...

A judge ruled that federal land managers didn’t show how they minimized impacts to vulnerable species in an off-road vehicle management plan in the Western Mojave Desert. The area is home to the ...

Spotting a Mojave Desert tortoise is increasingly difficult in the American Southwest. The tortoises, with their unmistakable domed patterned shells, live in California, parts of Nevada, Arizona and ...

NPCA has been working to expand Joshua Tree National Park and establish Chuckwalla National Monument to protect desert tortoise habitat. Here’s why an intact desert landscape matters for the tortoise ...

A federal judge ordered the Bureau of Land Management to close off-road vehicle trails that cut through tortoise habitat in the western Mojave Desert. The ruling follows years of legal battles between ...

Desert tortoises have lived in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah since the Pleistocene. In the early years of the 20th century, they still thrived within the Southwest's arid ...

PHOENIX — If you feel the heat outside, you know it’s springtime. That also means it’s desert tortoise adoption season. The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) matches dozens of captive Sonoran ...