4/13/22 update: the tortoise had to be euthanized by the vet when she saw the damage to the underside of the shell. Location and time are an educated guess, and my friend’s photo. Here’s what happened. At about 10:30am, drivers coming from Ridgecrest to Death Valley National Park saw an injured juvenile tortoise on the road. Somewhere between Trona and Death Valley, but not within the NP boundary. Closer to Trona. They picked it up and brought it 60+ miles to Stovepipe Wells Ranger Station in Death Valley. We have friends who now work for BLM in Ridgecrest so we called them. Their biologist told us to bring it back to Ridgecrest where the Crestview animal hospital there could take care of it. There are veterinarians there who specialize in tortoises. So it is in good hands and hopefully it will survive it’s injuries. It’s injuries were at the back end of its body. The tail area and one of its feet had crunched toes. Pictures are from my friends in Ridgecrest who intercepted the tortoise from my DV friend and took it to the animal hospital. Tortoises are pretty rare in DV, although there are some out here. In my 3.5 years living out here, we’ve never had a tortoise brought to the visitor center and we’ve never gotten reports of injured or dead ones (thank God). So when I heard this radio traffic that there was “an injured tortoise at Stovepipe Wells Ranger Station, still alive”, I couldn’t believe it. So many thanks to everyone who helped save this tortoise today! I am grateful for what everyone did today to save this tortoise. 4 years ago I saw an adult tortoise on the side of this same exact road, alive and fine. My same friends who live in Ridgecrest also have seen a tortoise near the road there. So this is definitely tortoise habitat on the Trona Road to Death Valley (but not inside the DV boundary. Closer to Trona.)
url: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/110716594