new species christened Morafka’s desert tortoise

[68merc]

http://blogs.forbes.com/toddwoody/2011/06/30/solar-developers-face-new-desert-tortoise-species/

Fun fun... what do you keep? How do you tell them apart?

http://www.lvrj.com/news/study-reve...esert-tortoise-species-124688319.html?ref=319

 

[ascott]

Awesome.....thanks for sharing those articles...don't know that it will change the "norm" of the damn solar plants though......but fun to know that there is this distinction verified/named....Love the California Desert Tortoises (I really want to see a photo of the newly labeled Morafkas )

 

[Zouave]

theres gonna be LOTS of new "Help Me I.D." threads lol

 

[ascott]

Maybe already so..... there have been some on here that have not quite fit one or the other to a T ???? Hmmmm?

 

[Torty Mom]

Hmmmm has me wondering what my little babies are! I'm too tired to read it all now, I'll check it out tomorrow, looks interesting. My little guy Squirt looks more green than my other 3. So now we can have ADT, CDT, TT, MDT and many others, I am sure!

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

A whole separate species, huh? Hmmm. Whatever happened to subspecific designation? I hope they're not doing this just to flummox the solar power developers, because those kinds of political games can really backfire. This news comes just a couple of weeks after Joe Biden's gaff over the gopher tortoise website. Coincidence? I wonder.

It shouldn't matter whether these tortoises on either side of the Colorado River are separate species, subspecies, or mere populations. Conservationists should argue in favor of protecting animals from an ethical standpoint, not a purely taxonomic one.

 

[ascott]

I don't think that they are trying to confuse any politician, I do believe that they have the right intentions...the solar panel plants are a great thing....HOWEVER, these companies build in all the wrong places....as a desert dweller myself, I know that they can simply move a "little further" down the road (out of tortoise terrain) but they ELECT not to.

I "think" that they are using what ever means they need to so as to increase the listing from threatened to endanger of extinction since the Agazzis in reality populate a very specific area which decreases their chances of survival if that very specific area continues to decrease. Since they do not evolve as readily as other species...hey, I think this was part of a conversation previously?????