Waterford kids care for endangered desert tortoises

SANDY — A threatened species has found a most nonthreatening new home among schoolchildren.

Waterford School fourth-graders are the adoptive parents of two abandoned desert tortoises, a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The critters — to be named in a schoolwide contest, though Ferrari and Houdini appeared to be early favorites — met their new caretakers Tuesday, quickly taking to the habitat students designed over the past year.

"It's fun to see mine and my classmates' ideas to just be out there," fourth-grader Sage Heuston said of the reptiles, who were happy to sniff the shoes of excited students and even chase down a dropped red headband. "It's fun to see them move ... and start adapting to their habitat."

The tortoises are native to California deserts. They are believed to have been brought home from the wild as pets — a practice that's now illegal — before being turned in to a refuge in St. George and placed in the Utah Division of Wildlife Services' foster program, said Laura Hines, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources native aquatic species biologist.

Desert tortoises are a federally threatened species, suffering from habitat loss as southern Utah cities fill out. But Wildlife Resources allows them to be adopted with a permit, with preference given to educational and research activities, the permit application states. Hundreds have been adopted that way, Hines said.

But adopting these critters is not like packing home a puppy.

Desert tortoises can live for 50 years or more and are relatively high maintenance.

Their habitat must be vast and secure, with a buried fence — the escape artists will dig under it — natural surroundings, shallow water so they don't drown, and rocks low enough so they don't fall on their backs and become injured or die. They also must have a place to hibernate, typically from October through April, where temperatures will remain between 40 to 55 degrees.

That said, they're a perfect addition to Waterford's science program. Their outdoor habitat, which third- through fifth-graders studied and designed last year, has native plants, grass, a dry creek bed full of rocks surrounding a soft island, a partially sand-buried tube for shelter, trees for shade and "dinosaur prints" that fill up with rain or sprinkler water.

"These two tortoises are lucky," Hines said. "They're going to have a blast in this environment."