A fix for the desert tortoise

In a long hallway at Las Vegas’ Oquendo Center, a renowned veterinary training facility, dozens of plastic totes are lined up against a wall. Each holds a single Mojave desert tortoise, a threatened species. This is pre-op: The nearly 60 tortoises, rescued from captivity, are pioneers in Nevada’s new strategy to help stem the state’s captive tortoise problem. They’re waiting to be sterilized. Sterilizing members of a species you’re trying to save may sound weird, but there’s a reason for it. Pet, or “captive,” tortoises were exempted from the 1990 Endangered Species Act listing of the Mojave desert tortoise, an unconventional arrangement designed to allow Southwesterners to keep any tortoises they already had in their backyards. Even as the wild population faces habitat loss and fragmentation, caused primarily by development, tortoises thrive in captivity. And when people dump unwanted pets or their offspring in the desert, those tortoises compete with the fragile wild population and frequently spread diseases — one of many reasons why dealing with them diverts resources needed for wild tortoises...more