Desert Tortise
Rodrigo RScience Report
Mr. CastrellonMay 2014
INTRODUCTION
This slide show is about the desert tortoise. You will learn many things about this animal like its diet, habitat, range, family life, life cycle and anatomy.
DIET
The desert tortoise is an herbivore. Grasses form the bulk of its diet but it also eats herbs, annual wild flowers and new growth of cactus as well as their fruit and flowers. In early spring, a tortoise emerges to feed on the fresh plants blooming in its home range.
Habitat and Range
Desert tortoise can live in areas with ground temperatures exceeding 140˚F (60˚C) because of their ability to dig underground burrows and escape from becoming a predator’s meals. The desert tortoise habitat is the American Southwest. In California, the desert tortoise lives in the Mojave Desert.
MAP OF RANGE
The average home range of a tortoise measures from 27 to 131 acres (10 to 53 hectare). Mojave Desert tortoises range from 47 to 51% of the desert.
LIFE CYCLEDesert tortoise
hatchling
Desert tortoise
baby
Desert tortoise juvenile
Desert tortoise
adult
ANATOMY
It has stumpy, club like legs and feet. When threatened this tortoise seeks safety inside its high, domed shell.
Average body size and Wight
These tortoises may attain a length of 10 to 14 inches (25 to 36 cm), with males begin slightly larger than females.
Interesting factsThe animals who want to harm the desert
tortoise are raven, Gila monsters, kit foxes, baggers, road runners and fire ants are all natural predators of the desert tortoise. Desert tortoises that make it to adult hood can live eighty to one hundred years. Desert tortoises and other reptiles are cold blooded. Many countries forbid to capture or kill of tortoises.
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