Syzdekistan

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Desert Tortoise Council’s annual symposium which was held here in Las Vegas. The symposium is where all of the tortoise researchers get together and present their research. There are also talks on other topics like Asian soft-shell turtles. This year, there was an excellent series of talks on Gila monsters and beaded lizards. I got to buy a copy of “Biology of Gila Monsters and Beaded Lizards” and meet the author, Dan Beck. I’ve only seen one monster in the wild, and I am really excited about trying to find a “bumpy lizard” this spring.

Another great thing about Tortoise Council is seeing old friends, coworkers, and even a “long-lost” relative. The “long-lost” relative is my cousin Lisa Bucci who works with desert turtles and tortoise for Arizona Game and Fish. I saw her last year in Tucson so she really isn’t “long-lost.” I also got to see lots of people I used to work with over the years and even made some new contacts. It’s really wonderful to be around so many people who work so hard on their field work, research, and who care so much about protecting and preserving wildlife for future generations.

On Monday, I missed the Tortoise Council field trip opportunities (been there, done those) and got to do a tortoise removal project. US Fish and Wildlife Service decided to help get some of their staff some field experience and help out my employer by relocating some of the tortoises in the area. We have a facility that is located on Bureau of Reclamation land. The paved access road often has tortoises on it. Housing developments are encroaching on the area and the public often races up and down the road. If they were to hit a tortoise, my employer could be held responsible. So the FWS got about 25 people to come out and we did an informal tortoise clearance on about 500 acres of land. We teamed up the less experienced people with the more experienced and walked the area looking for tortoises. We found nine tortoises. Those animals will be relocated further away from the road. It has been a long time since I’ve done that sort of work and it was fun to be out looking for tortoises again.