A desert tortoise crawls along the sands of the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area in California City. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Behind the fences surrounding this 40-square-mile outback of ...

Boasting more than 80 distinct ecosystems, Florida is a biodiversity hot spot. In fact, more than 4,000 animal species are native to the Sunshine State. In the heat of summer, a growing number of ...

Eight decades ago, the vast Mojave Desert was home to hundreds of tortoises per square mile, with tortoises inhabiting nearly all areas of the desert below an altitude of 3,000 feet. Today, most ...

Behind the fences surrounding this 40-square-mile outback of cactus and wiry creosote, the largest remaining population of Mojave desert tortoises was soaking up the morning sun and grazing on a mix ...