Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Mountains

Sonoran desert tortoise seen before brumation

September 20, 2026

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observed 17 times in the past 30 days, including two records on 2026-09-19, all flagged as Threatened.¹ These late-summer sightings coincide with increased surface activity before the tortoise begins its seasonal brumation period.¹

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More about Sonoran Desert Tortoise

Sonoran Desert Tortoises are out across the Tucson basin this monsoon

September 14, 2026

(Gopherus morafkai) have been out on the ground across the Tucson basin from mid-August into the second week of September, most of them in the Avra Valley west of the city and a smaller set on the rocky slopes below the Catalinas. This is the one stretch of the year when the odds of meeting one on a trail are good. The animal spends most of its life underground or under rock, and it comes out mainly in daylight during the monsoon, when the rain has greened up the forage and filled the shallow pools it drinks from. It is a domed, high-backed tortoise the color of the caliche it digs into, with a shell somewhat narrower and more pear-shaped than the Mojave desert tortoise's. The two species are split by the Colorado River and do not overlap here, so any wild tortoise on this side of the river is the Sonoran one. It favors steep, rocky ground and the bajadas below it, not open valley floor, and it shelters in burrows it digs itself, in caliche caves, and in rock crevices. The tortoise drinks from puddles a finger deep by putting its nostrils to the surface and pulsing its throat to pull the water in. It also scrapes basins in the soil to catch rain and remembers where they are, walking directly to them when a storm passes. What it takes in goes into a bladder that can hold water for extended periods and release it back into the bloodstream as the body needs it. When a rain finally comes after a long dry spell, a tortoise drinks heavily, voids the concentrated urine it has been carrying, and stores fresh water in its place. In a hard drought an adult can go a long time without drinking.